"Breakdown" or "stand-off"? What is the main difference?
I'm having hard times trying to get the slight (personally) difference between these two phrasal nouns: "breakdown" and "stand-off".
What is the main difference between them?
Which one is the best to be used in the following situation " breakdown/stand-off in strike talks"?

Question

Answer

There are very different!

A standoff is a challenge of equal powers. Think of two gunfighters in the wild west at high noon.

A breakdown means the original plan doesn't work anymore and there is only chaos.

Both expressions fit your phrase, but they have very different meanings.