Word.ws English Dictionary

rotten

Syllables: rot·ten/ˈɹɒtn̩/US/ˈɹɑtn̩/

rotten adjective: of perishable items, overridden with bacteria and other infectious agents.

rotten: of perishable items, overridden with bacteria and other infectious agents
Image: Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

rotten (comparative rottener or more rotten, superlative rottenest or most rotten)

  1. Of perishable items, overridden with bacteria and other infectious agents.
    • If you leave a bin unattended for a few weeks, the rubbish inside will turn rotten.
    • Antonio: Mark you this, Bassanio, / The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. / An evil soul producing holy witness / Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, / A goodly apple rotten at the heart. / O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. In a state of decay.
    • The floors were damaged and the walls were rotten.
    • His mouth stank and his teeth were rotten.
  3. Cruel, mean or immoral.
    • That man is a rotten father.
    • This rotten policy will create more injustice in this country.
  4. Bad or terrible.
    • Why is the weather always rotten in this city?
    • It was a rotten idea to take the boat out today.
  5. Of stone or rock, crumbling or friable; in a loose or disintegrated state.
    • The quartz specimens were sometimes blue, hard-looking stone, or rotten quartz largely impregnated with iron, in both cases carrying bright glittering nodules of gold.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 215
  6. (Australia, Ireland, UK, slang) Very drunk, intoxicated.

Adverb

rotten (comparative more rotten, superlative most rotten)

  1. To an extreme degree.
    • That kid is spoilt rotten.
    • The girls fancy him something rotten.

rotten meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

rotten in Hindi

decayed, gone bad
सड़ा saṛā

rotten in Tamil

அழுகின்ற, வெறுப்பான, அழுகிய, இற்ற, இற்றுப்போன

rotten in Marathi

decayed, gone bad
सडलेले saḍlele, सडलेला saḍlelā, सडलेली saḍlelī

rotten in Urdu

rotten, putrid
سڑا saṛā
rotten, decayed
بوسيدہ bosīdah
rotten
خراب xarāb, گلا galā
More languagesFewer languages
rotten in Bengali
পচা poca
rotten in Telugu
చెడిపోయిన ceḍipōyina
rotten in Malayalam
ചീഞ്ഞ cīñña, അളിഞ്ഞ aḷiñña
rotten in Kannada
ಕೊಳೆತ koḷeta
rotten in Punjabi
ਸੜਿਆ saṛiā
rotten in Gujarati
સડી ગયેલી, સડી ગયેલા
rotten in Odia
ଶଢ଼ା śaṛhā
rotten in Assamese
গেলা gela, পচা posa, পচোৱা posüa, গেলোৱা gelüa
rotten in Pashto
وروست wrōst, ګنده sxâ
rotten in Arabic
فَاسِد fāsid
rotten in Indonesian
busuk
rotten in Persian
پوسیده puside
rotten in Thai
เน่า nâo
rotten in Vietnamese
mục, rữa
rotten in Myanmar
ပုပ် pup

Examples of rotten in a sentence

  • She has the flu and feels rotten.
  • But poore old man, thou prun'ſt a rotten tree, / That cannot ſo much as a bloſſome yeeldec. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
  • Something is rotten in the State of Denmarke.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies...
  • "It's old man Challenger's show and we are here by his good will, so it would be rotten bad form if we didn't follow his instructions to the letter."1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
  • "You're not only crazy," Oscar said bitterly, "you're rotten jealous.1958 May, Avram Davidson, “Or All The Seas With Oysters”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, page 53:

All 40 example sentences with rotten

Synonyms of rotten

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of rotten

Forms of rotten

Adjective
comparativerottener
comparativemore rotten
superlativerottenest
superlativemost rotten
Adverb
comparativemore rotten
superlativemost rotten

Origin of rotten

From Middle English roten, from Old Norse rotinn (“decayed, rotten”), past participle of an unrecorded verb related to Old Norse rotna (“to rot”) and Old English rotian (“to rot”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rutāną (“to rot”). See rot. By surface analysis, rot + -en (past participle).

Words formed from rotten

Phrases with rotten

4 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with rotten

Questions about rotten

What does rotten mean?
Rotten means of perishable items, overridden with bacteria and other infectious agents.
What is rotten in Hindi?
Rotten in Hindi is सड़ा (saṛā). See Rotten meaning in Hindi.
How do you use rotten in a sentence?
She has the flu and feels rotten.
What part of speech is rotten?
Rotten can be an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce rotten?
Rotten is pronounced /ˈɹɒtn̩/ (UK).

Words near rotten in the dictionary

  1. rotted away
  2. rotted in hell
  3. rotted off
  4. rotted through
  5. rottedness
  6. rotten
  7. rotten apple
  8. rotten apples
  9. rotten borough
  10. rotten boroughs
  11. rotten egg

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rotten (page history and authors); rotten (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); بوسيدہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); পচা (Bengali) (page history and authors); ಕೊಳೆತ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਸੜਿਆ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); rotten (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଶଢ଼ା (Odia) (page history and authors); গেলা (Assamese) (page history and authors); وروست (Pashto) (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.

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