major breakthrough, breakthrough

Redundancies are words that unnecessarily repeat information. Because a breakthrough is a strikingly important advance or accomplishment, the modifier major in the familiar expression major breakthrough is often unnecessary.

  • This is a breakthrough (not major breakthrough) for ridding the world of anti-personnel mines.

Copyright notice for Writing Tips Plus

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Public Services and Procurement
A tool created and made available online by the Translation Bureau, Public Services and Procurement Canada

Search by related themes

Want to learn more about a theme discussed on this page? Click on a link below to see all the pages on the Language Portal of Canada that relate to the theme you selected. The search results will be displayed in Language Navigator.