Synonyms of make-or-break

make-or-break

adjective

as in crucial

resulting in either definite success or definite failure

a make-or-break decision

The next year will be a make-or-break time for the company.

Related Words

• crucial
• critical
• pivotal
• watershed
• climactic
• apocalyptic
• go-no-go
• highest
• life-and-death
• climacteric
• culminating
• crowning
• fateful
• momentous
• decisive
• vital
• epochal
• apical
• crossover
• crestal
• meridian
• high
• deciding
• earthshaking
• apogean
• payoff
• cataclysmal

Dissimilar Words

• trivial
• unimportant
• insignificant
• inconsequential
• anticlimactic
• indecisive
• noncritical

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of make-or-break

Riley, meanwhile, has not seemed like a head coach who’s feeling the heat heading into a make-or-break season at USC. — Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2026

This season feels make-or-break for the 2023 first-round pick, especially because he may not be used as an every-down player. — Antwan Staley, New York Daily News, 28 Aug. 2026

Jordan enters 2026 as a senior in a make-or-break campaign for his draft hopes. — Jim Reineking, USA Today, 27 Aug. 2026

Key Background Leerink Partners analyst Mani Foroohar wrote in June that Moderna’s late-stage cancer vaccine trial would be a make-or-break event for its stock, with the potential for the experimental drug to work across multiple types of cancer. — Ty Roush, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2026