Meaning & use
ice breaker
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Meanings
nouncountable
A remark, game or activity meant to make strangers feel relaxed and start talking to each other.
Grammar: Takes an or the: a good ice breaker; plural ice breakers.
Patterns
- an ice breaker for something
- use something as an ice breaker
The trainer began the workshop with a quick ice breaker.
Asking about her travels was a useful ice breaker at the dinner.
A joke about the weather is an easy ice breaker.
nouncountablespecialist
A strong ship with a reinforced hull built to cut a path through frozen water.
Grammar: A concrete noun: the ice breaker sailed north.
Patterns
- an ice breaker leads something
An ice breaker cleared a channel for the cargo ships.
The research team traveled to Antarctica aboard an ice breaker.
Russia operates a large fleet of nuclear-powered ice breakers.
Word forms
| plural | ice breakers |
|---|
Common combinations
- a good ice breaker
- Name tags are a good ice breaker at big events.
- use an ice breaker
- Teachers often use an ice breaker on the first day of class.
- ice breaker activity
- Our ice breaker activity involved sharing a surprising fact.
- ice breaker question
- Her ice breaker question was, 'What was your first job?'
- nuclear-powered ice breaker
- A nuclear-powered ice breaker led the convoy.
Synonyms and how they differ
- opener
- Is more general and can start any conversation or show, while an ice breaker specifically eases awkwardness between strangers.
- warm-up
- Suggests getting a group ready for work or play, not necessarily making them comfortable with each other.
- conversation starter
- Names a remark or object that gets people talking, whereas an ice breaker can also be a planned group game.
Word family
- icebreaker noun
- the one-word spelling of the same noun
- break the ice phrase
- to ease the tension when people first meet
- icebreaking adjective
- able to cut through ice, as in an icebreaking vessel
- ice noun
- frozen water
Commonly confused: ice breaker or ice cutter?
ice breaker vs ice cutter
Not a standard term for the ship; use ice breaker for the vessel and for the social activity.
Practice
The meeting began with an ice breaker, so the new team members ____.
Choose one answer.
An ice breaker is meant to relax people who do not know each other. The other options describe results it is not designed to produce.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ice breaker”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.