rubble

1 of 2

noun

rub·​ble ˈrə-bəl 

1

a

: broken fragments (as of rock) resulting from the decay or destruction of a building

fortifications knocked into rubble

—C. S. Forester

b

: a miscellaneous confused mass or group of usually broken or worthless things

2

: waterworn or rough broken stones or bricks used in coarse masonry or in filling courses of walls

3

: rough stone as it comes from the quarry

rubble

2 of 2

verb

rubbled; rubbling ˈrə-b(ə-)liŋ 

transitive verb

: to reduce to rubble

Synonyms

Noun

• debris
• wreckage
• ruins
• remains
• ashes

Examples of rubble in a Sentence

Noun

Rescue workers managed to pull two injured people out of the rubble.

The earthquake reduced the whole town to rubble.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

On Wednesday, emergency workers pulled more bodies from the rubble of a nine-story Kyiv apartment building demolished by a Russian attack earlier this week, raising the death toll from the strike on the capital to 28. —James Jordan, Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2025

On Tuesday, a man had waited hours there for his 31-year-old son’s body to be pulled from the rubble. —Justin Spike, Los Angeles Times, 18 June 2025

Israeli flags stand amid rubble and destruction in a residential area of Rishon LeZion, Israel on June 14, 2025. —Dan Perry, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 June 2025

The deceased were recovered from under rubble, Klymenko said. —Kevin Shalvey, ABC News, 17 June 2025

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English robyl

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1944, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for rubble

• bubble
• double
• stubble
• trouble
• redouble

Kids Definition

rubble

noun

rub·​ble

ˈrəb-əl

1

: rough broken stones or bricks used in building

2

: a confused mass of rough or broken things