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denken

German, verb

denken is spelled D-E-N-K-E-N (6 letters) and appears 170 times per million words in written German, the 507th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Denken is a German verb meaning “to think” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Denken is a different word: “gerund of denken; thinking, thought(s)”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “geistig tätig sein, im Kopf formulieren”.

What does denken mean in English?

verb

  1. 1

    rareto think

    Ich denke, also bin ich.

  2. 2

    not to forget; to remember

    Denk an den Schlüssel!

  3. 3

    to imagine

    Das kann ich mir denken.

  4. 4

    to think, to believe, to assume, to conjecture

    Ja, das dachte ich mir.

noun

as Denken
  1. 1

    neutergerund of denken; thinking, thought(s)

Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How German dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Einstellung zu etwas 2. zielgerichtete geistige Tätigkeit

verb: 1. geistig tätig sein, im Kopf formulieren 2. der Meinung sein, zu einer Einstellung gekommen sein 3. für die Zukunft planen 4. auf etwas Rücksicht nehmen oder etwas als sehr wichtig erachten

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 denken

  • denkt present singular third-person
  • dachte past
  • gedacht participle past
  • dächte past subjunctive
  • haben auxiliary
  • denkend participle present
  • denke first-person indicative present
  • denkst indicative present second-person
  • denkest second-person singular subjunctive
  • denket plural second-person subjunctive
  • dachten first-person indicative plural
  • dächten first-person formal plural
  • dachtest indicative preterite second-person
  • dachtet indicative plural preterite
  • dächtest formal rare second-person
  • dächtet formal plural rare
  • denk imperative second-person singular
  • habe gedacht first-person indicative multiword-construction

Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to denken

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is denken in German?

denken appears 170 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).

What to look up after denken