collapse

1. 1.

   an abrupt failure of function or complete physical exhaustion

   “the commander's prostration demoralized his men”

   Synonymsprostration

   Broaderillness

   Narrowerbreakdownshockheatstrokealgidity
2. 2.

   a natural event caused by something suddenly falling down or caving in

   “the roof is in danger of collapse”

   “the collapse of the old star under its own gravity”

   Broaderhappening

   Narrowercave indebacleimplosion
3. 3.

   the act of throwing yourself down

   “he landed on the bed with a great flop”

   Synonymsflop

   Broaderdescent
4. 4.

   a sudden large decline of business or the prices of stocks (especially one that causes additional failures)

   Synonymscrash

   Broaderhappening

Other forms of collapse

plural

collapses·

past tense

collapsed·

present participle

collapsing·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about collapse

What does collapse mean?

collapse means "break down, literally or metaphorically". That is the primary sense; the word has 11 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in collapse?

collapse has 2 syllables: col-lapse. The stress falls on "lapse". In IPA it is /kəˈlæps/.

What is another word for collapse?

Close synonyms include fall in, cave in, give, give way, break. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is collapse a common word?

collapse is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with collapse?

3 words rhyme with collapse. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.