bewahren
German, verb
bewahren is spelled B-E-W-A-H-R-E-N (8 letters) and appears 15 times per million words in written German, the 4,877th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Bewahren is a German verb meaning “to keep, to preserve (to maintain the condition of)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With an umlaut, bewähren is a different word: “to show (e.g. courage)”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas Positives auch in einer schwierigen Situation beibehalten”.
What does bewahren mean in English?
verb
- 1
to keep, to preserve (to maintain the condition of)
verb
- 1
to show (e.g. courage)
- 2
to prove oneself
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas Positives auch in einer schwierigen Situation beibehalten 2. sich etwas erhalten 3. vor einer Gefahr schützen
verb: 1. über einen längeren Zeitraum und in der Erprobung/Praxis zeigen, dass etwas oder jemand geeignet ist 2. zeigen/beweisen, dass etwas wahr ist
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 bewahren
- bewahrt present singular third-person
- bewahrte past
- haben auxiliary
- bewahrend participle present
- bewahre first-person indicative present
- bewahrst indicative present second-person
- bewahrest second-person singular subjunctive
- bewahret plural second-person subjunctive
- bewahrten first-person indicative plural
- bewahrtest indicative preterite second-person
- bewahrtet indicative plural preterite
- bewahr imperative second-person singular
- habe bewahrt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben bewahrt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- bewahre! imperative singular
- bewahr! imperative singular
- bewahrt! imperative plural
- bewahrt haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to bewahren
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is bewahren in German?
bewahren appears 15 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).