Debris is scattered pieces of something that has been broken, destroyed, or left over.
It comes from French “débris,” meaning “broken pieces, rubble,” from “débriser,” “to break to pieces.” The root ties back to the idea of something being shattered or crushed.
Debris is the story a disaster leaves behind—bits of what used to be whole. It can describe everything from broken glass after a storm to floating pieces of a destroyed spaceship in a movie.
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