broken
/ˈbɹəʊ.kn̩/
"broken" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“broken” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,387 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #1,387
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - past participle of break
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | broken |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈbɹəʊ.kn̩/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,387 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “broken” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for broken is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɹəʊ.kn̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,387 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "past participle of break".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for broken, with forms such as "bbroken", "borken", and "brkoen". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "brown", "broker", "Brooke", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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”). … The correct English form is broken, spelled B-R-O-K-E-N.
Definition
- 1past participle of break
Etymology
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.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbroken,borken,brkoen,broekn,brokenn,brokken,brokne,brroken,rboken
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of broken - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “broken”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-R-O-K-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɹəʊ.kn̩/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “brown” - see the side-by-side comparison. broken vs brown
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.