breakdown vs pile-up

breakdown

noun
  • A failure, particularly mechanical in nature. 

  • A loss of organization (of the parts of a system). 

  • Any rapid bluegrass dance tune, especially featuring a five-string banjo. 

  • The percussion break of songs chosen by a DJ for use in hip-hop music. 

  • Breaking of chemical bonds within a compound to produce simpler compounds or elements. 

  • Something that has experienced a mechanical failure. 

  • A detailed description of a forthcoming project, including the characters and roles required. 

  • A physical collapse or lapse of mental stability. 

  • The sudden transition of an electrical insulator to a conductor when subjected to a sufficiently strong voltage, caused by the partial or complete ionization of the insulator. 

  • Listing, division or categorization in great detail. 

  • A musical technique by which the music is stripped down, becoming simpler, varying in heaviness depending on the genre. 

pile-up

noun
  • An accumulation that occurs over time, especially one which is not welcome. 

  • A pile of tackling players. 

  • A pile of crashed vehicles due to a traffic accident. 

How often have the words breakdown and pile-up occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )