break down
to stop functioning · to collapse emotionally · to analyze · to decompose
The object can go between or after: Break the data down or Break down the data ✅
With pronouns, the object must go between: Break it down — never break down it ✗
As a noun, always one word: a breakdown — never a break down ✗
Every living system depends on the ability to break down what it no longer needs. In forests, bacteria and fungi dismantle fallen trees into carbon, nitrogen, and minerals — nutrients that return to the soil and feed new life. Without this constant dismantling, organic matter would pile up indefinitely, and ecosystems would suffocate under the weight of their own past. Decomposition is not decay; it is transformation. Nature never destroys — it breaks things down and rebuilds.
The same logic operates inside your own body, invisibly and without pause. Right now, enzymes in your stomach and intestines are breaking down proteins into amino acids, fats into fatty acids, carbohydrates into glucose — molecules small enough to cross into your bloodstream and power every thought and movement you make. This happens billions of times per second, driven by molecular machines so efficient that no laboratory has ever replicated them. When scientists want to understand a substance, they do exactly what nature does: they break it down into its parts and read what they find.
Informal register
Substitutes: fall apart · go to pieces · crack up · lose it
Idiomatic expressions: "Fall to pieces" echoes the famous song and feels emotionally loaded. "Hit a wall" is perfect when someone reaches their limit and simply can't go on.
Work register
Substitutes: collapse · stall · deteriorate · fail
Note that "break down the figures" (meaning: analyze) is perfectly natural in work contexts — this is one case where the phrasal verb is actually preferred over the formal substitute.
Subject: Update on Partnership Negotiations
Dear Ms. Harrison,
I regret to inform you that the partnership discussions with Meridian Group have stalled following last week's meeting. Despite considerable effort from both sides, we were unable to reach agreement on revenue-sharing terms.
The primary issue concerns intellectual property rights, which have deteriorated into a fundamental disagreement about long-term licensing. Our legal team is currently reviewing available options before we proceed further.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss next steps at your earliest convenience.
Kind regards,
David Chen · Senior Partnership Manager
Academic register
Substitutes: decompose · disintegrate · analyze · fragment · dissolve
The process by which complex social structures disintegrate under sustained economic pressure has been extensively examined in the literature on institutional collapse. Scholars have argued that institutions do not fragment uniformly; rather, they deteriorate along fault lines determined by existing inequalities and resource distribution. When formal regulatory mechanisms dissolve, informal networks often emerge to fill the resulting governance vacuum — a phenomenon particularly well-documented in post-conflict societies. This analytical framework allows researchers to examine each component of institutional failure independently, thereby identifying the specific variables most strongly associated with systemic collapse.
Formal verb — no phrasal
Substitutes: fail · collapse · dissolve · analyze · decompose
fail — neutral, universal · collapse — totality, sudden failure · dissolve — partnerships, institutions, chemistry · analyze — for the "break down data" meaning · decompose — scientific/biological contexts
