bagatellisieren
German, verb
bagatellisieren is spelled B-A-G-A-T-E-L-L-I-S-I-E-R-E-N (15 letters) and appears about once in every 5 million words in written German, the 116,815th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Bagatellisieren is a German verb meaning “to belittle, minimise/minimize, trivialise/trivialize, play down, make light of, depreciate (to make or attempt to make something seem less…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Bagatellisieren is a different word: “gerund of bagatellisieren”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “(eine Sache) als Bagatelle ansehen, behandeln, darstellen, als geringfügig und unbedeutend hinstellen”.
What does bagatellisieren mean in English?
verb
- 1
to belittle, minimise/minimize, trivialise/trivialize, play down, make light of, depreciate (to make or attempt to make something seem less important)
noun
- 1
neutergerund of bagatellisieren
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. (eine Sache) als Bagatelle ansehen, behandeln, darstellen, als geringfügig und unbedeutend hinstellen
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 bagatellisieren
- bagatellisiert present singular third-person
- bagatellisierte past
- haben auxiliary
- bagatellisierend participle present
- bagatellisiere first-person indicative present
- bagatellisierst indicative present second-person
- bagatellisierest second-person singular subjunctive
- bagatellisieret plural second-person subjunctive
- bagatellisierten first-person indicative plural
- bagatellisiertest indicative preterite second-person
- bagatellisiertet indicative plural preterite
- bagatellisier imperative second-person singular
- habe bagatellisiert first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben bagatellisiert first-person indicative multiword-construction
- bagatellisiere! imperative singular
- bagatellisier! imperative singular
- bagatellisiert! imperative plural
- bagatellisiert haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to bagatellisieren
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is bagatellisieren in German?
bagatellisieren appears about once in every 5 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).