Is there any difference between "break the record" and "shatter the record"? Break the record makes me think about sports or something. How about shatter the record? I wanted to express like new COVID cases set the record again. Thank you in advance.

Question

Answer

Sometimes people will say "shattered the record" to mean that they not only broke the record, but did so by an amazing amount of accomplishment.

If Michael Phelps broke a record by a fraction of a second, it's still a record that's broken. But if Michael Phelps broke a record by several seconds that left everyone far behind, and not even close to meeting or beating, he would have shattered the record.

Answer

Good answer from Marlana. "Shattered the record" means the person broke it by a lot.

(You could also shatter an old 78rpm record. They were very brittle. But I don't think that's what you were asking.)

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