Shipwreck Meaning
/ˈʃɪpɹɛk/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA ship that has sunk or run aground so that it is no longer seaworthy; a ruined vessel or its remains.
nounAn event where a ship sinks or runs aground.
Sentence Examples
A bad wife is the shipwreck of her husband.
A bad wife turns her husband into a shipwreck.
Divers discovered an ancient shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The storm caused a terrible ____ that left the crew stranded on an island.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Divers explored the remains of the old ____, hoping to find gold coins lost at sea centuries ago.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English shipwrak, from Old English sċipwræc (“jetsam”), equivalent to ship + wrack. Cognate with Scots schip-wrak (“to shipwreck”, verb), Dutch scheepswrak (“shipwreck”), German Schiffswrack (“shipwreck”), Swedish skeppsvrak (“shipwreck”), Danish skibsvrag (“shipwreck”). Modern form is due to influence from wreck.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"heaven will drive shipwrecks ashore to make us all rich"
— 1670, John Dryden, William D'Avenant, The Tempest:
"Blackfishing from the beach. I've done my research. Hundreds of shipwrecks line the Jersey coast, and many of them are close enough to reach with a long cast on a dead-low tide. These wrecks hold tautog, porgies, sea bass, flounder."
— 2014, Nick Honachefsky, The Jersey Surf Diaries:
"The shipwreck is the earliest examples yet found of a propeller-driven steamship on the Great Lakes."
— 2015 October 22, Michael Pearson, “153-year-old shipwreck found in Lake Ontario”, in CNN:
"Marine archaeologists have discovered that two shipwrecks in Costa Rica are the remains of Danish slave ships missing for centuries — a finding that restores the ancestral lineage of an entire Costa Rican community more than 300 years after the vessels’ occupants reached its shores."
— 2025 May 2, Amarachi Orie, “Archaeologists discover true identity of Costa Rica shipwrecks long thought to be pirate ships”, in CNN:
"they made the coast of Cochin China, and the tempests, which rose at the same time, threatened them more than once with shipwreck"
— 1688, John Dryden, The Life of St Francis Xavier:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The storm caused a terrible ____ that left the crew stranded on an island.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Divers explored the remains of the old ____, hoping to find gold coins lost at sea centuries ago.