variants
also kaputt
1
as in doomed
facing certain defeat, disaster, or death
once the Germans were forced to retreat from Stalingrad, the Nazi cause was kaput
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in obsolete
having passed its time of use or usefulness
hard-line Soviet-style Communism became kaput in Russia
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in malfunctioning
not being in working order
the heating system went kaput on the coldest day of the year
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of kaput
Kelly Reilly, who plays Beth Dutton, seems adamant that the OG Yellowstone is kaput.
—
Bethy Squires, Vulture, 15 Dec. 2024
Now all three of those competitors are kaput, felled by runs on deposits during the biggest banking crisis in a decade and a half.
—Rob Copeland, New York Times, 14 June 2023
The Stooges are now functionally kaput—of the original lineup, only Pop is left.
—Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2019
At least not on Sunday afternoon, nearly a full two days after the Clippers were supposed to be done, finished, as kaput as the Kings – those in Sacramento and Los Angeles.
—Jeff Miller, Orange County Register, 29 Apr. 2017
The damages for that less-than-brilliant marketing idea could be as much as $120 million, meaning the company as a whole is pretty much financially kaput.
—Susan Arendt, WIRED, 14 Mar. 2007
Bethy Squires, Vulture, 15 Dec. 2024
Now all three of those competitors are kaput, felled by runs on deposits during the biggest banking crisis in a decade and a half.
—Rob Copeland, New York Times, 14 June 2023
The Stooges are now functionally kaput—of the original lineup, only Pop is left.
—Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2019
At least not on Sunday afternoon, nearly a full two days after the Clippers were supposed to be done, finished, as kaput as the Kings – those in Sacramento and Los Angeles.
—Jeff Miller, Orange County Register, 29 Apr. 2017
The damages for that less-than-brilliant marketing idea could be as much as $120 million, meaning the company as a whole is pretty much financially kaput.
—Susan Arendt, WIRED, 14 Mar. 2007
Recent Examples of Synonyms for kaput
Adjective
-
As highlighted by McKinsey and the MIT Sloan School of Management, this distinction has become obsolete over the last few years with tech leaders now integral to business strategy, driving innovation and delivering value.—
Rosalba Carandente,
Forbes.com,
15 May 2025
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And in this parish of 12,000 Catholics from more than 100 countries, those who make a living as interpreters fear their jobs will soon be obsolete.—
Motoko Rich,
New York Times,
15 May 2025
Adjective
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His work in building the Augment MBA program is a response to a problem many business schools don’t recognize: the risk of over-reliance on archaic frameworks instead of education in service of action.—
Alexander Puutio,
Forbes.com,
9 May 2025
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Federal efforts would be better spent intervening, even by use of a consent decree, to dismantle an education system that locks poor, overwhelmingly minority students in archaic education bureaucracies based on their income and ZIP code.—
Paul Vallas,
Chicago Tribune,
7 May 2025
Adjective
-
What exactly was Florida getting in the 37-year-old winger having a down year?—
Pierre LeBrun,
New York Times,
19 May 2025
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The 32-year-old first baseman appears to have figured out after hitting just .214 in 449 at-bats last season in a major down year.—
Drew VonScio,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 May 2025
Adjective
-
Only Williams, McLaren, Ferrari, Sauber (through all its guises), and the defunct operations of Lotus and Tyrrell remain ahead.—
Alex Kalinauckas,
New York Times,
17 May 2025
-
The Idaho Cobalt Project is a model: a defunct mine site brought back into operation to extract minerals while also helping clean up legacy pollution.—
Bill Frist,
Forbes.com,
13 May 2025
Adjective
-
But India, citing national security concerns, has publicly provided little evidence linking the attack to Pakistan, which denies involvement and says that Lashkar-e-Taiba is largely inoperative.—
Zia ur-Rehman,
New York Times,
29 Apr. 2025
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At the same time, Israel has acted to render what is left of Assad’s navy inoperative.—
Bassem Eid,
New York Daily News,
2 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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The sunk cost fallacy, for example, can lead companies to continue investing in maintaining a physical office space, despite the benefits of remote work.—
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky,
Forbes,
6 Feb. 2023
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The sunk cost fallacy is a bias that behavioral economists say can cause a person to stick with a losing investment.—
Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi,
Discover Magazine,
22 Mar. 2022
Adjective
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But the remaining chargers were inoperable 31% of the time, Hartmann said in testimony on Hettleman’s bill.—
Christine Condon,
Baltimore Sun,
1 May 2025
-
The Justice Department noted in court filings that this will eventually render the app inoperable.—
Yaakov Katz,
Newsweek,
17 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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With captive breeding — a process in which endangered species are bred in captivity and released back into the wild — underway since 1996, the authors hope their new findings may help inform future conservation efforts, such as identifying areas where they can be released.—
Marlowe Starling,
CNN Money,
14 May 2025
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But that business — one that relied on a dependable audience of older, sophisticated moviegoers — has largely evaporated post-COVID, with art-house breakouts becoming something of an endangered species.—
Elsa Keslassy,
Variety,
14 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Kaput.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/kaput. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
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