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roto

Spanish, noun

roto is spelled R-O-T-O (4 letters) and appears 19 times per million words in written Spanish, the 4,065th most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Roto is a Spanish masculine noun meaning “a broken thing or person” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a past participle of romper. With an accent, rotó is a different word: “third-person singular preterite indicative of rotar”. The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Personaje característico de la ciudad chilena. El huaso (personaje del campo) y el roto chileno (personaje de…”.

What does roto mean in English?

adjective

  1. 1

    broken

    Si no está roto, no lo arregles.

  2. 2

    corrupt, rotten

  3. 3

    vulgar, low-class, classless

  4. 4

    ruptured

  5. 5

    slangbroken, that gives or has a big advantage

noun

  1. 1

    masculinea broken thing or person

  2. 2

    derogatorymasculinea Chilean

verb

  1. 1

    past participle of romper

verb

  1. 1

    first-person singular present indicative of rotar

verb

as rotó
  1. 1

    third-person singular preterite indicative of rotar

Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How Spanish dictionaries define it

adjective: 1. Destrozado parcial o totalmente. 2. Referido a un aparato, que no funciona. 3. Agotado, muy cansado. 4. Dicho de una persona, de gusto vulgar o inferior, y hábitos incultos.

noun: 1. Personaje característico de la ciudad chilena. El huaso (personaje del campo) y el roto chileno (personaje de la ciudad), son los chilenos por antonomasia, los personajes que caracterizan la chilenidad. El roto es una persona pobre, alegre, buena para la talla y valerosa. 2. Ano.

verb: 1. Participio irregular de romper.

The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.

Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of roto

  • rota feminine
  • rotos masculine plural
  • rotas feminine plural

Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to roto

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is roto in Spanish?

roto appears 19 times per million words in written Spanish.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after roto