shipwreck

1 of 2

noun

ship·​wreck ˈship-ˌrek 

1

: a wrecked ship or its parts

2

: the destruction or loss of a ship

3

: an irretrievable loss or failure

shipwreck

2 of 2

verb

shipwrecked; shipwrecking; shipwrecks

transitive verb

1

a

: to cause to experience shipwreck

b

: ruin

2

: to destroy (a ship) by grounding or foundering

Synonyms

Noun

• wrecking
• wreck
• sinking
• shipwrecking

Verb

• wreck

Examples of shipwreck in a Sentence

Noun

Only a few sailors survived the shipwreck.

The crew narrowly avoided shipwreck.

Divers searched the sunken shipwreck.

Verb

the yachtsman fell asleep at the wheel and shipwrecked his ketch on the rocks

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

More: More than 3 times as many shipwrecks were discovered in Lake Michigan last year as ever before. —Maia Pandey, jsonline.com, 23 Aug. 2025

Below us, a 15-foot-long anchor from a 1790 shipwreck accompanies 30 cannons lost to the sea. —Peter Kelly, Travel + Leisure, 18 Aug. 2025

Verb

Younger fans have lived through an era when, season by season, one by one, the most valuable player to come out of the academy had to be flogged to stop the club from being financially shipwrecked. —Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 28 July 2025

Epic story of perseverance and hope follows a 16-year-old boy who is shipwrecked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and survives on a lifeboat with four companions: a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Royal Bengal tiger. —Luann Gibbs, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025

Word History

Etymology

Noun

alteration of earlier shipwrack, from Middle English schipwrak, from Old English scipwræc, from scip ship + wræc something driven by the sea — more at wrack

First Known Use

Noun

12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1589, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

shipwreck

1 of 2 noun

ship·​wreck -ˌrek 

1

: a wrecked ship

2

: the destruction or loss of a ship

shipwreck

2 of 2 verb

1

: to cause to experience shipwreck

a storm that shipwrecked the sailors

2

: to destroy (a ship) by driving ashore or sinking