"Crack" versus "Fracture"
It seems that within the field of fracture mechanics, some authors use "fracture" to refer to the mechanism of creating new surfaces within a body by breaking the material bonds and reserve the word "crack" for the sharp-tipped discontinuity that results from fracture of a brittle material. But it does not appear that this distinction is followed consistently throughout the literature, and perhaps different research areas within the fracture mechanics field use the two words in different ways.