brutto

Brutto is a term used especially in German-speaking contexts to denote a total amount before any deductions. It describes gross figures, contrasted with Netto, which denotes the net amount after taxes, fees, or other withholdings. The word appears in financial, accounting, and statistical language, and is common in both everyday usage and formal reporting.

In everyday and business German, Brutto appears in terms such as Bruttogehalt or Bruttoeinkommen (gross salary or gross income), Bruttolohn, Bruttobetrag, and Bruttorechnung. The corresponding net terms are Netto, such as Nettoeinkommen or Nettogehalt. The Brutto price or Bruttopreis refers to the price before value-added tax (Mehrwertsteuer) or other deductions, while Nettopreis or Nettonutzpreis denotes the price after those deductions. In economics, Brutto is applied to aggregated measures such as Bruttoinlandsprodukt (gross domestic product, GDP) and Bruttowertschöpfung (gross value added). An older term still encountered in some contexts is Bruttosozialprodukt.

Outside finance, Brutto also appears in contexts like Bruttogewicht (gross weight) versus Nettogewicht (net weight). The overarching idea is always the same: Brutto represents the total amount before subtractions; Netto represents what remains after deductions.

In Italian, brutto means ugly or coarse when used as an adjective, and it can describe something unpleasant or bad, as in che brutto tempo (what bad weather). The Italian meaning is distinct from the German financial sense, though both senses involve notions of totality or intensity in everyday language.

Overall, Brutto functions as a key term in economics, accounting, and price terminology to signal gross quantities before deductions.