broken

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
12
Words With Friends
14
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/ˈbɹəʊ.kn̩/
See all 3 pronunciations
/ˈbɹəʊ.kn̩/ · /ˈbɹoʊ.kɪn/ · /ˈbɹoʊ.kən/

Definition of broken

19 senses · 3 parts of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (form-of, participle, past)past participle of break
See all 19 definitions

verb

  1. (form-of, participle, past)past participle of break

adj

  1. Fragmented; in separate pieces.
    “One recent morning the team had to replace a broken weather research station.”
    “Local people say there were Russian and Chechen forces here.[…]Over here on the wall, one interesting detail- a single word, which someone has written in broken English: "Sori".”
  2. Fragmented; in separate pieces.
    “My arm is broken!”
    “The ground was littered with broken bones.”
  3. Fragmented; in separate pieces.
    “A dog bit my leg and now the skin is broken.”
  4. Fragmented; in separate pieces.
  5. Fragmented; in separate pieces.
    “Then the circle would lie down again, and here and there a wolf would resume its broken nap.”
  6. Fragmented; in separate pieces.
    “Tomorrow: broken skies.”
  7. Fragmented; in separate pieces.
    “A cuckoo sat on a gate-post singing his broken June tune[.]”
  8. Breached; violated; not kept.
    “broken promises of neutrality”
    “broken vows”
    “the broken covenant”
  9. Non-functional; not functioning properly.
    “I think my doorbell is broken.”
  10. Non-functional; not functioning properly.
  11. (informal)Non-functional; not functioning properly.
    “This is the most broken application I've seen in a long time.”
  12. Non-functional; not functioning properly.
    “His conversation was in French with Mailey and Roxton, who both spoke the language well, but he had to fall back upon broken English with Malone, who could only utter still more broken French in reply.”
    “Don't say it in Russian / Don't say it in German / Say it in broken English”
  13. (US, colloquial)Non-functional; not functioning properly.
    “Oh man! That is just broken!”
  14. Completely defeated and dispirited; shattered; destroyed.
    “The bankruptcy and divorce, together with the death of his son, left him completely broken.”
    “He said, "Son, when you grow up / Would you be the savior of the broken / The beaten, and the damned?"”
    “And oh, maybe I see a part of me in them / The missing piece, always trying to fit in / The shattered heart, hungry for a home / No, you're not alone / I love the broken ones / I love the broken ones”
  15. Having no money; bankrupt, broke.
  16. Uneven.
    “All that day they rode into broken land. The prairie with its grass and rolling hills was behind them, and they entered a sparse, dry, rocky country, full of draws and short cañons and ominous buttresses.”
  17. Overpowered; overly powerful; giving a player too much power.
    “This item is incredibly broken. I win almost every run I get to use it.”

name

  1. (derogatory, slang)Torres Strait Creole.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English broken, from Old English brocen, ġebrocen, from Proto-Germanic *brukanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”). Cognate with Dutch gebroken (“broken”), German Low German broken (“broken”), German gebrochen (“broken”). Morphologically broke + -n.

Anagrams of broken

2 plays · some not in Scrabble

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