Meanings
alternative archaic débris
- uncountableRubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.
Melissa Foley clears debris in her neighborhood as the San Lorenzo River rises in Felton on Saturday, January 14.
2023 January 16, “California’s flooding, in pictures”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Mar 20232 more examples
His neighbors were still ripping out debris. But Mr. Ryan, a retired bricklayer who built his house by hand 30 years ago only to lose most of it to Hurricane Sandy, was already hard at work rebuilding.
2012 December 21, David M. Halbfinger, Charles V. Bagli, Sarah Maslin Nir, “On Ravaged Coastline, It’s Rebuild Deliberately vs. Rebuild Now”, in The New York TimesBut signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.
2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, archived from the original on 21 Dec 2020, page 43Synonyms: detritus
- uncountableLitter and discarded refuse.
[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].
2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2023Synonyms: cultch, crap, dreck, drek, garbage, gash, junk, litter
Synonyms & antonyms
nounRubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.
nounLitter and discarded refuse.
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰrest-“to separate, burst”
- Proto-Germanic*brestaną“to break, burst”
- Frankish*bristijan
- Old Frenchdebrisier
- Middle Frenchdebriser“to break apart”
- Frenchdébris
- Englishdebris
Borrowed from French débris, itself from dé- (“de-, off-”) + bris (“broken, crumbled”), or from Middle French debriser (“to break apart”), from Old French debrisier, itself from de- + brisier (“to break apart, shatter, bust”), from Frankish *bristijan, *bristan, *brestan (“to break violently, shatter, bust”), from Proto-Germanic *brestaną (“to break, burst”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrest- (“to separate, burst”). Cognate with Old High German bristan (“to break asunder, burst”), Old English berstan (“to break, shatter, burst”), German bersten (“to burst”). Related to burst.
More words from French, Middle French, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek χέραδος
- χέραδος (khérados)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Arabic رُكام
- رُكام (rukām)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Bulgarian отло́мки, разва́лини
- отло́мки (otlómki)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- разва́лини (razválini)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- оста́тъци (ostátăci)litter and discarded refuse
- отпа́дъци (otpádăci)litter and discarded refuse
Catalan restes
- restesrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Chinese Mandarin 殘骸 /残骸, 瓦礫 /瓦砾
- 殘骸 /残骸 (cánhái)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- 瓦礫 /瓦砾 (wǎlì)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- 碎片 (suìpiàn)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- 垃圾 (lājī, lèsè)litter and discarded refuse
- 廢棄物 /废弃物 (fèiqìwù)litter and discarded refuse
- 岩屑large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
- 碎石堆large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
Czech sutiny, trosky
- sutinyrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- troskyrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Dutch puin, wrakstukken
- puinrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- wrakstukkenrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- wrakhoutrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- restantenrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- overblijfselenlitter and discarded refuse
- afvallitter and discarded refuse
- puinlitter and discarded refuse
- gletjserpuin n etc.large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
Esperanto rubo, rubo
- ruborubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- rubolitter and discarded refuse
Finnish pirstaleet, jäänteet
- pirstaleetrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- jäänteetrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- tähteetrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- romurubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- rippeetrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- jätteetlitter and discarded refuse
- jätelitter and discarded refuse
- roskalitter and discarded refuse
- romulitter and discarded refuse
- lohkarelarge rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
- siirtolohkarelarge rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
French débris
- débrisrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
German Trümmer, Schutt
- Trümmerrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- Schuttrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- Ruinenrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- Geröllrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- Mülllitter and discarded refuse
- Gerölllarge rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
Greek συντρίμμια
- συντρίμμια (syntrímmia)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Hindi मलबा, मलबा
- मलबा (malbā)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- मलबा (malbā)litter and discarded refuse
- अवशेष (avśeṣ)litter and discarded refuse
Hungarian törmelék
- törmelékrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Indonesian serpihan
- serpihanrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Irish smionagar
- smionagarrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Italian macerie, rovine
- macerierubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- rovinerubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Japanese 残骸
- 残骸 (zangai)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Korean 잔해
- 잔해 (janhae)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Latin rūdus
- rūdusrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Polish gruzy, gruz
- gruzyrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- gruzrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- pozostałościlitter and discarded refuse
- resztkilitter and discarded refuse
- morenalarge rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
Portuguese destroços, detritos
- destroçosrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- detritosrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- lixolitter and discarded refuse
- restoslitter and discarded refuse
- moreialarge rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
- morenalarge rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
Russian обло́мки, разва́лины
- обло́мки (oblómki)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- разва́лины (razváliny)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- му́сор (músor)litter and discarded refuse
- лом (lom)litter and discarded refuse
- обло́мки (oblómki)litter and discarded refuse
Scottish Gaelic sprùilleach, sprùilleach
- sprùilleachrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- sprùilleachlitter and discarded refuse
Spanish escombros, restos
- escombrosrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- restosrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- detritusrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- detritorubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- detritosrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- escombrorubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- escombrarubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- basuralitter and discarded refuse
- cachureolitter and discarded refuse
- fragmentos glaciareslarge rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
- morrenalarge rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
Swedish skräp, sopor
- skräprubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- soporlitter and discarded refuse
- skräplitter and discarded refuse
Turkish enkaz
- enkazrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Ukrainian ула́мки, розва́лини
- ула́мки (ulámky)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- розва́лини (rozvályny)rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Vietnamese mảnh vụn
- mảnh vụnrubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with debris
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
debris. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/debris
“debris.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/debris. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “debris,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/debris.
Source: debris on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.