Word.ws English Dictionary

broken window

broken window noun: under broken windows theory, anything that signals an area is unmonitored or unworthy of proper behavior, leading to crime.

Noun

broken window (plural broken windows)

  1. Under broken windows theory, anything that signals an area is unmonitored or unworthy of proper behavior, leading to crime.
    • Fare evasion was the biggest broken window in the transit system.1998, William J. Bratton, Peter Knobler, Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic, page 152

Forms of broken window

pluralbroken windows

Questions about broken window

What does broken window mean?
Broken window means under broken windows theory, anything that signals an area is unmonitored or unworthy of proper behavior, leading to crime.
What part of speech is broken window?
Broken window is a noun.
What is the plural of broken window?
The plural of broken window is broken windows.

Words near broken window in the dictionary

  1. broken vessel
  2. broken vessels
  3. broken water
  4. broken wedlock
  5. broken wind
  6. broken window
  7. broken window theory
  8. broken windows
  9. broken windows policing
  10. broken windows theory
  11. broken with

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: broken window (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “broken window.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/broken_window. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.