legen
German, verb
legen is a German verb meaning “to lie down” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a causative of liegen: to lay; to put, place, position (someone or something)…. With a capital, Legen is a different word: “gerund of legen; laying, placement”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas in horizontale Lage bringen oder in horizontaler Lage in eine Position bringen”.
What does legen mean in English?
verb
- 1
causative of liegen: to lay; to put, place, position (someone or something) such that it afterwards lies
Eier legen
- 2
to lie down
Ich lege mich auf das Bett.
- 3
to castrate
Ich habe meinen Hengst legen lassen.
- 4
colloquialto slay, to defeat
- 5
colloquialto cause great amusement, to make someone collapse in laughter, to kill, to slay
Bei dem zweiten Witz hat's ihn komplett gelegt.
noun
- 1
neutergerund of legen; laying, placement
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas in horizontale Lage bringen oder in horizontaler Lage in eine Position bringen 2. Eier hervorbringen 3. verlegen, Leitungen anbringen 4. Karten in den Skat ablegen, drücken
suffix: 1. nachgestelltes Wortbildungselement bei Toponymen, meist in Verbindung mit einem Personennamen für die Gründung, die Siedlung, die Hinterlassenschaft, das Erbe oder das Anwesen der Namen gebenden Person
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of legen
- legt present singular third-person
- legte past
- gelegt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- legend participle present
- lege first-person indicative present
- legst indicative present second-person
- legest second-person singular subjunctive
- leget plural second-person subjunctive
- legten first-person indicative plural
- legtest indicative preterite second-person
- legtet indicative plural preterite
- leg imperative second-person singular
- habe gelegt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gelegt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- lege! imperative singular
- leg! imperative singular
- legt! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to legen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is legen in German?
legen appears 68 times per million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).