Broken

How to spell broken

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce broken

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does broken mean?

1. adjectiveDamaged, fractured, or no longer in working order.
2. verbThe past participle of break, used to form perfect tenses and passive constructions.

Broken in a sentence

• adjective

  The repair shop replaced the broken screen on her phone.

• verb

  The contract was broken when the supplier missed three deadlines.

• adjective

  He tripped over a broken paving slab outside the office.

• verb

  She had broken the record for fastest delivery that quarter.

Where does broken come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past participle of the verb 'break', which descends directly from the Old English brecan, meaning 'to shatter, divide, or destroy by force'. That verb belongs to a wide family of Germanic relatives, including the Dutch breken and the German brechen, all carrying the same idea of forcibly parting something into pieces. The strong-verb pattern is what gives us the vowel change and the old participle ending, so 'break' becomes 'broke' and then 'broken', much as 'speak' becomes 'spoke' and 'spoken'. Over centuries the meaning widened from purely physical fracture to figurative uses, so we now speak of a broken promise, a broken connection, or broken sleep. The spelling stays reassuringly regular: a single k and the familiar -en ending, the same suffix that marks many other past participles.

How the word is built

• brok- (past-participle stem of break, from Old English brecan)
• -en (past-participle suffix)