What does “kaputt” mean in German?

Kaputt is German’s single word for anything that has stopped working — a shattered phone, a broken relationship, a body that needs sleep, or a car that won’t start. English needs “broken,” “dead,” “wrecked,” and “exhausted” separately; German collapses them into one. It sits in informal-to-neutral register and feels natural in almost any sentence where something is irreparably off.

The word traces back to French capot, a card-game term for losing every trick — the ultimate state of being done for. German soldiers picked it up in the 17th century and respelled it kaputt, shifting the meaning from “losing at cards” to “destroyed, ruined.” That root shows why it covers such wide ground: the common thread is total failure. In the Humpty Dumpty retelling in this clip, kaputt is used twice for the broken egg lying on the ground, then sharply contrasted with wieder ganz (“whole again”). Later, Humpty wants to become a hard-boiled egg damit er nicht kaputt geht — so he doesn’t break. The same word, three different moments, same core meaning: something has stopped being intact.