1
a
: broken fragments (as of rock) resulting from the decay or destruction of a building
fortifications knocked into rubble—
C. S. Forester
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
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
Ken Harbaugh, The Atlantic, 15 Sep. 2025
Images from the incident show firefighters on the scene searching through the rubble of the building following the explosion.
—Escher Walcott, PEOPLE, 15 Sep. 2025
In particular, a significant amount of rubble is visible in the streets of Jabalya and Sheikh Radwan, apparently caused by direct fire that damages the sides of buildings without appearing on satellite imagery.
—Zeena Saifi, CNN Money, 12 Sep. 2025
Latvian workers harvested rock from the small hill along the lake, eventually discovering a human skull amongst the rubble in 1964.
—Sarah Durn, Popular Science, 11 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rubble
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Noun
Every window was blown out, and rubble littered the ground.
—Ken Harbaugh, The Atlantic, 15 Sep. 2025
Images from the incident show firefighters on the scene searching through the rubble of the building following the explosion.
—Escher Walcott, PEOPLE, 15 Sep. 2025
In particular, a significant amount of rubble is visible in the streets of Jabalya and Sheikh Radwan, apparently caused by direct fire that damages the sides of buildings without appearing on satellite imagery.
—Zeena Saifi, CNN Money, 12 Sep. 2025
Latvian workers harvested rock from the small hill along the lake, eventually discovering a human skull amongst the rubble in 1964.
—Sarah Durn, Popular Science, 11 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rubble
Cite this Entry
“Rubble.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rubble. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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