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Photo of a fissure

Damage & Destruction

Words to do with the breaking and undoing of things.

Photo of an x-ray of a cat
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Fis forFracture

A fracture is a break in a bone or other hard part of the body. The picture is an x-ray of a cat who has a fractured leg.

Gis forGash

A gash is a large, deep, jagged wound. The dog in the picture has had a gash on his face stitched up.
Photo of an imperfection on a leaf
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An imperfection, or flaw, stops something from being perfect.
Photo of a girl tearing paper
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Ris forRip

Rip is another word for tear, where you damage something by pulling it in two different directions at once until it breaks.
Photo of a torn mattress
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Ris forRipped

Ripped is the past tense of rip. Something that has been damaged by being ripped is described as being ripped. A similar word to ripped is torn.
Photo of a rotting gourd
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Ris forRot

Something rots as it breaks into smaller pieces and disintegrates, usually because it is decaying.
Photo of a ruined castle
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Ris forRuin

Ruins are what remains of a house or some other building when it has not been looked after for a long time and starts to fall apart. Ruins of buildings that are very, very old are often considered to be very interesting, and people will come from a long way to look at them.
Photo of rust
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Ris forRust

Rust is what happens to iron when there is moisture around. Things will rust faster if there is any salt in the water, which happens often near the sea or if salt has been used to de-ice roads or sidewalk. Rust is a distinctive reddish-brown. It is common to see old cars falling apart from rust.

Sis forShard

A shard is a broken fragment of something, particularly broken glass or earthenware.