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Business vocabularyphrasal verb · /breɪk aʊt/

break out

In simple English

To extract or separate specific elements from a larger entity. Often used when dividing work, data, or findings into distinct categories for clarity.

Someone heard "break out" in a meeting and wants to know what it means in business or tech context.

At a glanceCEFR B1–B2
Commonness
Versatility
FormalityCasualFormalNeutral
Spoken ↔ WrittenSpokenWrittenBoth
Directness ↔ DiplomaticDirectDiplomaticNeutral
Region

Say it like this

Let's break out the costs by department.
Can you break out the mobile stats from the overall traffic?
We should break out this epic into smaller stories.
I'll break out the action items from the meeting notes.
The report breaks out revenue by region.

Real examples

Standup

"I'm going to break out the frontend work from this ticket today."

Slack message

"Can someone break out the error logs from yesterday's incident?"

GitHub PR

"I broke out the validation logic into its own module for clarity."

Jira ticket

"AC: Break out the API endpoints by resource type."

Retrospective

"Let's break out the feedback into what worked and what didn't."

Sprint planning

"This story is too big. We need to break out the database changes."

Pair programming

"Let's break out this function—it's doing too many things."

Don't say this

Let's break out from the main task.
Let's break out the subtasks from the main task.You need to specify what you're separating. 'Break out from' alone sounds incomplete.
I will break out the code.
I will break out the validation code into a separate file.Be specific about what you're separating and where it's going.
We should breakout the data.
We should break out the data.'Break out' is two words as a verb. 'Breakout' (one word) is a noun or adjective.

Other forms

base form

break out

"Let's break out the key metrics."

past tense

broke out

"I broke out the user data yesterday."

past participle

broken out

"The costs have been broken out by team."

present participle

breaking out

"I'm breaking out the tasks now."

noun/adjective

breakout

"We'll have a breakout session after lunch."

Often used with

break out the dataSeparate data into categories or groups
break out the costsShow costs by category, team, or time period
break out into smaller tasksDivide one big task into many small ones
break out by regionSeparate information based on geographic area
break out the detailsExtract specific information from a summary

Similar words

separateMore formal and general; works in any context
extractEmphasizes pulling out specific data or information
split upMore casual; often used for dividing work
isolateTechnical; emphasizes focusing on one element
segmentOften used with data or users; more formal

Opposites

combinemergeconsolidateaggregatebundle

Practice

Try it

4 quick exercises

Choose the most natural sentence

1. Which sentence sounds most natural in a sprint planning meeting?

Find the error

2. Which sentence has a mistake?

Complete the sentence

3. We need to _____ the mobile data from the desktop data.

Rewrite more naturally

4. Rewrite: 'I will separate the authentication code and put it in a different module.'

More words

Questions

Quick poll

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