quebrada

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish quebrada.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /keˈbɹɑːdə/

Noun

quebrada (plural quebradas)

1. A ravine or valley in Latin America.
   • 2003, Joan Koss-Chioino, Thomas L. Leatherman, Christine Greenway, Medical Pluralism in the Andes, page 209:

     Later, friends told me of the dangers of absorbing fright illness and mal aire from the quebrada, especially from eggs and other curing paraphernalia discarded there.

Alternative forms

• quebrado

Galician

Adjective

quebrada f sg

1. feminine singular of quebrado

Participle

quebrada f sg

1. feminine singular of quebrado

Portuguese

Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:

quebrada

Wikipedia ^pt

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /keˈbɾa.dɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /keˈbɾa.dɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /keˈbɾa.da/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɨˈbɾa.dɐ/ [kɨˈβɾa.ðɐ]

• Rhymes: -adɐ
• Hyphenation: que‧bra‧da

Adjective

quebrada f sg

1. feminine singular of quebrado

Noun

quebrada f (plural quebradas)

1. (Brazil, slang, often in the plural) neighborhood

   Synonym: banda

   • 2003 October, MS Barney, Rafael Mordente, “Bonde da Orgia de Travecos” (0:11 from the start), in Seringas Compartilhadas Vol. 2 (Concertos para Fagote Solo, em Sí Bemol), performed by U.D.R., Belo Horizonte:

     Eu tava com meus mano lá na minha quebrada / Chegou o Wanderley e veio dar ideia errada

     I was with my bros at my neighborhood, then Wanderley came with wrong ideas.

   • c. 2011, Bruno Lima, “Música da Goiaba” (0:01 from the start)‎Porto Seguro: Família Goiaba, published 6 April 2021:

     Lá nas quebrada^[sic] onde eu moro, mano / Tem um ponto de ônibus e um vendedor de goiaba, né?

     At the neighboohood I live, man, there's a bus stop and a guava salesman, y'know?

   • 2013 June 1, Marcello Gugu, “Ipiranga” (2:48 from the start), in Até Que Enfim, Gugu!, São Paulo:

     Eu amo minha quebrada, mas o mundo moderno / Faz minha vila ser mais quente que a cozinha do inferno

     I love my neighboohood, but the modern world makes my town hotter than hell's kitchen

2. (Brazil, slang) a place in a town or city where drugs are routinely consumed, often without knowledge of authorities (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
3. quebrada (ravine or valley in Latin America)

Participle

quebrada f sg

1. feminine singular of quebrado

References

• “quebrada”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “quebrada”, in Dicionário inFormal (in Portuguese), 2006–2025
• “quebrada” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913
• “quebrada”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “quebrada”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025, →ISBN
• “quebrada”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /keˈbɾada/ [keˈβ̞ɾa.ð̞a]
• Rhymes: -ada
• Syllabification: que‧bra‧da

Noun

quebrada f (plural quebradas)

1. gorge, ravine

   Synonyms: cañada, cañón, barranco, quiebra

Adjective

quebrada f sg

1. feminine singular of quebrado

Participle

quebrada f sg

1. feminine singular of quebrado

Derived terms

• pegarse la quebrada

Further reading

• “quebrada”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025