drehen
German, verb
drehen is spelled D-R-E-H-E-N (6 letters) and appears 34 times per million words in written German, the 2,442nd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Drehen is a German verb meaning “to turn” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Drehen is a different word: “dative plural of Dreh”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas um eine Achse bewegen”.
What does drehen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to turn
Dreh den Spiegel etwas nach links!
- 2
to turn (one’s body), turn around
Dreh dich mal etwas nach links!
- 3
to roll, twist, make something revolve, rotate
- 4
to revolve, rotate, spin
Die Erde dreht sich um die Sonne.
- 5
to concern, to revolve around
- 6
to shoot
Wir drehen, bis alles im Kasten ist.
- 7
to roll
- 8
to make a u-turn, turn around
Ich drehe hier mal, bei dem Verkehr nehmen wir besser die Landstraße.
noun
- 1
masculinedative plural of Dreh
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas um eine Achse bewegen 2. sich um eine Achse bewegen 3. vom rotierenden Werkstück Späne abheben 4. aus einzelnen Fäden durch festes Umeinanderschlingen herstellen
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 drehen
- dreht present singular third-person
- drehte past
- gedreht participle past
- haben auxiliary
- drehend participle present
- drehe first-person indicative present
- drehst indicative present second-person
- drehest second-person singular subjunctive
- drehet plural second-person subjunctive
- drehten first-person indicative plural
- drehtest indicative preterite second-person
- drehtet indicative plural preterite
- dreh imperative second-person singular
- habe gedreht first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gedreht first-person indicative multiword-construction
- drehe! imperative singular
- dreh! imperative singular
- dreht! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to drehen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is drehen in German?
drehen appears 34 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).