{
  "id": "breaking-point.threshold",
  "term": "breaking point",
  "sense": "threshold",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 14,
  "arena": "everyday language",
  "domain": "emergence",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a parameter has drifted until it crosses a wall where the thing can no longer persist, but the parts remain and the model does not yet know it has ended",
  "folk_gloss": "the point when something can no longer endure and fails",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "parameter.condition",
      "drift.aimless",
      "wall.range-end",
      "persist.continue",
      "model.representation"
    ],
    "interaction": "crossing without removal",
    "novel_properties": [
      "emergent.window"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in 1940 when wind-driven oscillations exceeded its structural tolerance, though its materials remained intact.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "In 2007, the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis fell suddenly when corrosion and design flaws crossed a load-bearing threshold.",
      "domain": "infrastructure"
    },
    {
      "text": "Neural networks trained on biased datasets begin generating toxic outputs only after a certain number of training iterations, past a detectable performance wall.",
      "domain": "computing"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "breaking point"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — crossing without removal"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-breaking-point.threshold"
}