besonnen
German, adjective
besonnen is spelled B-E-S-O-N-N-E-N (8 letters) and appears 1.4 times per million words in written German, the 31,493rd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Besonnen is a German adjective meaning “prudent, cautious, calm, circumspect” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a past participle of besinnen. With an umlaut, besönnen is a different word: “first-person plural subjunctive II of besinnen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “mit Bedacht handelnd, nüchtern/überlegt reagierend”.
What does besonnen mean in English?
adjective
- 1
prudent, cautious, calm, circumspect
verb
- 1
past participle of besinnen
verb
- 1
first-person plural subjunctive II of besinnen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. mit Bedacht handelnd, nüchtern/überlegt reagierend
verb: 1. etwas/sich von der Sonne bescheinen lassen
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 besonnen
- besonnener masculine nominative singular
- am besonnensten superlative
- besonnene feminine nominative singular
- besonnenes neuter nominative singular
- besonnenen genitive masculine singular
- besonnenem dative masculine singular
- der besonnene definite includes-article masculine
- die besonnene definite feminine includes-article
- das besonnene definite includes-article neuter
- die besonnenen definite includes-article nominative
- des besonnenen definite genitive includes-article
- der besonnenen definite feminine genitive
- dem besonnenen dative definite includes-article
- besonne present
- besonnst present
- besonnt present
- besonnte past
- besonn! imperative singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to besonnen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is besonnen in German?
besonnen appears 1.4 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).