Skip to main content
PlainSpell

stecken

German, verb

stecken is a German verb meaning “to stick; to be stuck” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a causative of stecken when intransitive, to stick; to put; to insert; to pin. With a capital, Stecken is a different word: “stick”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas in etwas anderes hineindrücken oder einfügen”.

What does stecken mean in English?

verb

  1. 1

    causative of stecken when intransitive, to stick; to put; to insert; to pin

  2. 2

    to stick; to be stuck

    Die Katze steckt im Baum.

  3. 3

    informalto be hiding (by location or causally behind something)

    Er wusste nicht, wo seine Katze wieder steckt.

  4. 4

    informalto inform privily, to intimate

noun

as Stecken
  1. 1

    masculinestick

noun

as Stecken
  1. 1

    neutergerund of stecken

Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How German dictionaries define it

verb: 1. etwas in etwas anderes hineindrücken oder einfügen 2. in etwas hineingedrückt oder eingefügt sein, festgeklemmt sein 3. jemandem etwas mitteilen 4. an einem bestimmten Ort sein

noun: 1. langes Stück Holz; Stock, Stab, Stange

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 stecken

  • Steckens genitive
  • Steckerl diminutive neuter
  • steckt present singular third-person
  • steckte past
  • stak archaic past
  • gesteckt participle past
  • stäke archaic past subjunctive
  • haben auxiliary
  • steckend participle present
  • stecke first-person indicative present
  • steckst indicative present second-person
  • steckest second-person singular subjunctive
  • stecket plural second-person subjunctive
  • steckten first-person indicative plural
  • staken archaic first-person indicative
  • stäken archaic first-person formal
  • stecktest indicative preterite second-person
  • stakst archaic indicative preterite

Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to stecken

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is stecken in German?

stecken appears 35 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).