Word.ws English Dictionary

something is rotten in Denmark

something is rotten in Denmark is the ellipsis of something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Meaning of something is rotten in the state of Denmark

Phrase

something is rotten in the state of Denmark

  1. (idiomatic) Something is not right, seriously amiss, especially when leading to suspicion of motive.
    • If the authorities knew about the problems and chose not to prevent them, then clearly something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Questions about something is rotten in Denmark

What is something is rotten in Denmark the ellipsis of?
Something is rotten in Denmark is the ellipsis of something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Words near something is rotten in Denmark in the dictionary

  1. something else
  2. something fierce
  3. something for the weekend
  4. something good
  5. something is better than nothing
  6. something is rotten in Denmark
  7. something is rotten in the state of Denmark
  8. something is up
  9. something like
  10. something like that
  11. something nasty in the woodshed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: something is rotten in Denmark (page history and authors); something is rotten in the state of Denmark (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: “something is rotten in Denmark.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/something_is_rotten_in_denmark. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.