ankaufen
German, verb
ankaufen is spelled A-N-K-A-U-F-E-N (8 letters) and appears about once in every 6 million words in written German, the 121,881st most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Ankaufen is a German verb meaning “to buy (esp. as an investment, in large quantities or for a collection)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Ankaufen is a different word: “gerund of ankaufen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “käuflich erwerben (etwas Wertvolles, Teures, Großes, eine Vielzahl von etwas)”.
What does ankaufen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to buy (esp. as an investment, in large quantities or for a collection)
noun
- 1
neutergerund of ankaufen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. käuflich erwerben (etwas Wertvolles, Teures, Großes, eine Vielzahl von etwas) 2. irgendwo Grundbesitz erstehen, um dort zu wohnen
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 ankaufen
- kauft an present singular third-person
- kaufte an past
- angekauft participle past
- haben auxiliary
- ankaufend participle present
- anzukaufen infinitive infinitive-zu
- kaufe an first-person indicative present
- kaufen an first-person indicative plural
- kaufst an indicative present second-person
- kaufest an second-person singular subjunctive
- kaufet an plural second-person subjunctive
- kauften an first-person indicative plural
- kauftest an indicative preterite second-person
- kauftet an indicative plural preterite
- kauf an! imperative singular
- kaufe an! imperative singular
- kauft an! imperative plural
- angekauft haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is ankaufen in German?
ankaufen appears about once in every 6 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).