BROKENDOWN Synonyms: 287 Similar and Opposite Words

broken-down 1 of 2

adjective

as in dilapidated

in a bad or weak condition because of being old, not well cared for, etc. A broken-down car was blocking one of the lanes of the road. His body was now broken-down after many years of hard living.

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broken down

2 of 2

verb

past participle of break down

as in separated

to arrange or assign according to type when presented with the pile of files, the first thing he did was to break them down by month, order within the month, and region

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as in decomposed

to go through decomposition the enamel of a human tooth will begin to break down when exposed to sugar for too long

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as in cut

to identify and examine the basic elements or parts of (something) especially for discovering interrelationships if we break the problem down into what appear to be three aspects of it, we'll have a better chance of solving it

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as in crashed

to stop functioning the computer finally broke down and had to be replaced

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started (up)

as in cracked

to yield to mental or emotional stress began to break down when he realized that he was on the verge of bankruptcy

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as in taken down

to take apart the crew was breaking down the party tent when we arrived

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as in shattered

to cause to break with violence and much noise firefighters had to break down the wall to rescue the kitten

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of broken-down

Adjective

Captain Ron Galaviz, the agency's chief public information officer, reported that there were 632 stuck or broken-down cars, 327 slide-offs and 423 car crashes. —

Jen Guadarrama, IndyStar, 27 Jan. 2026 Here are the top ten states with an overall stress rank in parenthesis, each broken-down by rank order for each of the five dimensions: work stress, financial stress, family stress, health & safety stress and work-life balance rankings. —

Bryan Robinson, Forbes.com, 27 Apr. 2025

Verb

Other screens show muscle and fat broken down by body part in both a chart and a full-body diagram. —

Andrew Gebhart, PC Magazine, 5 Apr. 2026 Asphalt is broken down on both sides of the road. —

Kenneth R. Gosselin, Hartford Courant, 5 Apr. 2026 Estimates broken down by city are expected to be released in May. —

Chris Higgins, Kansas City Star, 30 Mar. 2026 Comedian Charlie Berens also popularized the ritual, joking that it can be broken down into recognizable steps. —

Deirdre Bardolf, FOXNews.com, 29 Mar. 2026 Even squares or irregular blobs can be broken down into a series of progressively smaller circles and calculated using pi, Davoyan said. —

ABC News, 14 Mar. 2026 Negotiations have been ongoing for years, but trust on both sides has broken down. —

Mihir Sharma, Twin Cities, 8 Mar. 2026 The schedule is broken down by position group and players will be interviewed by teams and media; undergo different physical and mental exams; have their official draft day measurements taken and, maybe most importantly workout for scouts, fans and general mangers. —

Zoe Collins Rath, Austin American Statesman, 22 Feb. 2026 The Herald report found that most of the Proterra buses had broken down within a year of deployment and were pulled from routes as maintenance requests piled up. —

Ashley Miznazi, Miami Herald, 31 Jan. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for broken-down

Adjective

The city announced the move to the East Village in March, as part of the plan to close the dilapidated and sometimes violence-prone 30th Street center.

— Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News, 21 Apr. 2026
Its dilapidated state and lack of funding — just $25,000 was budgeted for programming by the city last year — prevents the facility from offering a full slate of services for residents.

— Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald, 14 Apr. 2026