Meanings
alternative kaputt
- informalnot comparableOut of order; not working.
My car went kaput.
5 more examples
The vending machine is kaput.
His career is kaput.
Her marriage went kaput.
German propaganda loudspeaker: […] The Statue of Liberty is KAPUT. Captain Miller: "The Statue of Liberty is kaput" – huh, that's disconcerting.
1998, Saving Private Ryan (motion picture)In the book, his conclusion is simple: capitalism is kaput, celebrity charity won’t plug holes, revolution is the only solution. Yet it also feels like a bit of a cop-out: he insists all this can be achieved through love, peace and understanding.
2014 October 11, Simon Hattenstone, “Russell Brand: ‘I want to address the alienation and despair’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 01 Jul 2022Synonyms: broken, bad, borked, broken, broken-down, bum, bung, busted
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveOut of order; not working.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*kap-?
- Proto-Indo-European*kap-
- Proto-Indo-European*káput
- Proto-Italic*kaput
- Latincaput
- Latincapitulum
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
- Latincapitulāre?
- Late Latincappa
- Old Frenchcape
- Old Frenchcapote
- Frenchcapot
- Germankaputt
- Englishkaput
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.
More words from German, French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans kapoet
- kapoetout of order
Catalan caput
- caputout of order
Danish kaput
- kaputout of order
Dutch kapot
- kapotout of order
Finnish kaput
- kaputout of order
French fini, capout
- finiout of order
- capoutout of order
- en panneout of order
- en carafeout of order
German kaputt
- kaputtout of order
Norwegian Bokmål kaputt
- kaputtout of order
Portuguese enguiçado, pifado
- enguiçadoout of order
- pifadoout of order
Romanian stricat, distrus
- stricatout of order
- distrusout of order
Russian капу́т
- капу́т (kapút)out of order
Swedish kaputt
- kaputtout of order
Thai เจ๊ง, พัง
- เจ๊ง (jéng)out of order
- พัง (pang)out of order
Turkish kaput
- kaputout of order
Yiddish קאַפּוט
- קאַפּוט (kaput)out of order
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with kaput
Sounds the same
Cite this entry
kaput. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kaput
“kaput.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kaput. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kaput,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kaput.
Source: kaput on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.