befahren
German, verb/bəˈfaːʁən/
befahren is spelled B-E-F-A-H-R-E-N (8 letters) and appears 3.9 times per million words in written German, the 14,778th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Befahren is a German verb meaning “to drive on, along; to sail; to cruise (a road, sea, strait, rail track, with any type of vehicle)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a past participle of befahren. The German Wiktionary defines it as “sich mit einem Gefährt auf einem Weg/in einem Gebiet fortbewegen”.
What does befahren mean in English?
verb
- 1
to drive on, along; to sail; to cruise (a road, sea, strait, rail track, with any type of vehicle)
den Weg befahren
- 2
to travel to
- 3
to spray, dump while driving along
eine Straße mit Schotter befahren
- 4
to enter (a shaft etc.)
adjective
- 1
trafficked, used, travelled-on (of a road, sea, strait, rail track, to be (frequently) traversed by vehicles)
wenig befahrene Straßen
- 2
experienced, well-travelled (of a sailor etc.)
- 3
inhabited (by animals, of a burrow etc.)
verb
- 1
past participle of befahren
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. mit Fahrzeugen benutzt
verb: 1. sich mit einem Gefährt auf einem Weg/in einem Gebiet fortbewegen
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 befahren
- befährt present singular third-person
- befuhr past
- beführe past subjunctive
- haben auxiliary
- 6 strong
- befahrend participle present
- befahre first-person indicative present
- befährst indicative present second-person
- befahrt indicative plural present
- befahrest second-person singular subjunctive
- befahret plural second-person subjunctive
- befuhren first-person indicative plural
- beführen first-person formal plural
- befuhrst indicative preterite second-person
- befuhrt indicative plural preterite
- beführest formal rare second-person
- beführst formal rare second-person
- beführet formal plural rare
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce befahren?
- /bəˈfaːʁən/
- [bəˈfaːʁən]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is befahren in German?
befahren appears 3.9 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).