befreien
German, verb
befreien is spelled B-E-F-R-E-I-E-N (8 letters) and appears 16 times per million words in written German, the 4,781st most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Befreien is a German verb meaning “to free (make free), to liberate” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Befreien is a different word: “gerund of befreien”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “aus einer Zwangslage entkommen”.
What does befreien mean in English?
verb
- 1
to free (make free), to liberate
- 2
to escape
noun
- 1
neutergerund of befreien
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. aus einer Zwangslage entkommen 2. jemands Zwangslage beenden 3. etwas Störendes überwinden; von etwas Störendem loskommen 4. etwas Störendes von etwas entfernen
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 befreien
- befreit present singular third-person
- befreite past
- haben auxiliary
- befreiend participle present
- befreie first-person indicative present
- befreist indicative present second-person
- befreiest second-person singular subjunctive
- befreiet plural second-person subjunctive
- befreiten first-person indicative plural
- befreitest indicative preterite second-person
- befreitet indicative plural preterite
- befrei imperative second-person singular
- habe befreit first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben befreit first-person indicative multiword-construction
- befreie! imperative singular
- befrei! imperative singular
- befreit! imperative plural
- befreit haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to befreien
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is befreien in German?
befreien appears 16 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).