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 of rubble

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

Her body was only retrieved from the rubble hours later, rescue workers said. —Sean Nevin, NBC news, 24 Apr. 2026

Khalil was trapped alive under rubble for hours, having made a phone call to her family and the Lebanese military for help, Qudah told CNN on Thursday. —Charbel Mallo, CNN Money, 23 Apr. 2026

Images from the scene showed a part of a four-story building reduced to a massive pile of rubble, with emergency workers on top of it. —ABC News, 22 Apr. 2026

Images from the scene showed part of a four-story building reduced to a massive pile of rubble, with emergency workers on top of it. —Hanna Arhirova, Los Angeles Times, 22 Apr. 2026

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