Broken Meaning
/ˈbɹəʊ.kn̩/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbpast participle of break
adjFragmented; in separate pieces.
Sentence Examples
Aaah!! My computer is broken!
Throw away the chairs whose legs are broken.
He survived the accident with no broken bones.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After the vase fell off the shelf, it was completely ____ into many pieces.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The window was ____ after the ball was hit directly towards it city.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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"."
— 2022 September 15, 2:33 from the start, in President Zelensky visits frontline as Ukraine reclaims more territory - BBC News, BBC News, archived from the original on 15 Sep 2022:
"Then the circle would lie down again, and here and there a wolf would resume its broken nap."
— 1906 May–October, Jack London, White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC:
"A cuckoo sat on a gate-post singing his broken June tune[.]"
— 1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill, London: Penguin Books, published 1994, page 9:
"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."
— 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
"Don't say it in Russian / Don't say it in German / Say it in broken English"
— 1979, “Broken English”, performed by Marianne Faithfull:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
After the vase fell off the shelf, it was completely ____ into many pieces.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The window was ____ after the ball was hit directly towards it city.