Standard Lemma guide

kaput

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Australian, Received-Pronunciation: /kəˈpʊt/
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • British, Southern, Standard: /kəˈpɵt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /kəˈpʊt/
  • General-American: /kɑ-/
  • General-American: /-ˈput/
  • Northern-Ireland, Scotland: /kəˈpʉt/
  • homophone: caput (sometimes)
  • rhymes with -ʊt
  • rhymes with -uːt

1

adj

Meaning 1

Out of order; not working.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal, not-comparable

Examples

  • My car went kaput.
  • The vending machine is kaput.
  • His career is kaput.
  • Her marriage went kaput.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: broken, bad, borked, broken-down, bum, bung, busted, cactused, crocked, dead, Donald Ducked, down, duff, faulty, flaky, FUBAR, fucked, fuckered up, inoperative, janky, jiggered, kaput, knackered, malfunctioning, munted, nonfunctional, nonoperational, offline, off one's feed, on the blink, on the fritz, out, out of commission, out of gas, out of kilter, out of order, out of service, out of sorts, out of whack, screwed up, stuffed, tits up, toes up, tore up, unfunctional

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Borrowed from German kaputt (“broken, out of order”), from French capot (“to be without a trick in the card game Piquet”). Cognate to Dutch kapot. Doublet of capot and capote.

Across languages

Translations

26 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: kapoet — out of order
  • Catalan: caput — out of order
  • Danish: kaput — out of order
  • Dutch: kapot — out of order
  • Finnish: kaput — out of order
  • French: fini — out of order
  • French: capout — out of order
  • French: en panne — out of order
  • French: en carafe — out of order
  • German: kaputt — out of order
  • Kyrgyz: өлүм (ölüm) — out of order
  • Kyrgyz: өлүү (ölüü) — out of order
  • Kyrgyz: жок болуу (jok boluu) — out of order
  • Kyrgyz: куруп кетүү (kurup ketüü) — out of order
  • Norwegian Bokmål: kaputt — out of order
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: kaputt — out of order
  • Portuguese: enguiçado — out of order
  • Portuguese: pifado — out of order
  • Romanian: stricat — out of order
  • Romanian: distrus — out of order
  • Russian: капу́т (kapút) — out of order
  • Swedish: kaputt — out of order
  • Thai: เจ๊ง (jéng) — out of order
  • Thai: พัง (pang) — out of order
  • Turkish: kaput — out of order
  • Yiddish: קאַפּוט (kaput) — out of order