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drei

German, number

drei is spelled D-R-E-I (4 letters) and appears 525 times per million words in written German, the 178th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Drei is a German number meaning “three (numerical value represented by the Arabic numeral 3; or describing a set with three elements)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Drei is a different word: “three (digit/figure 3)”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “die Kardinalzahl zwischen zwei und vier”.

What does drei mean in English?

number

  1. 1

    three (numerical value represented by the Arabic numeral 3; or describing a set with three elements)

noun

as Drei
  1. 1

    femininethree (digit/figure 3)

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

How German dictionaries define it

number: 1. die Kardinalzahl zwischen zwei und vier 2. „drei Uhr“ oder „fünfzehn Uhr“ 3. „drei Jahre (alt)“

noun: 1. die natürliche Zahl zwischen der Zwei und der Vier 2. die Ziffer Drei (3, ٣, 三, 叄) 3. „Befriedigend“, eine mittelmäßige Zeugnisnote 4. drei Augen auf einem Würfel

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 drei

  • drey alternative obsolete
  • Drei alternative
  • Dreien plural
  • dreie variant
  • [1] Indisch-arabisch-europäische Ziffer: 3 symbol
  • [1] Römisches Zahlzeichen: Ⅲ (Unicode-Zeichen für III) symbol
  • die drei Dinge nominative definite
  • drei Dinge nominative indefinite
  • der drei Dinge genitive definite
  • dreier Dinge genitive indefinite
  • den drei Dingen dative definite
  • drei Dingen dative indefinite
  • meine drei Dinge nominative possessive pronoun
  • drei meiner Dinge nominative possessive pronoun
  • meiner drei Dinge genitive possessive pronoun
  • dreier meiner Dinge genitive possessive pronoun
  • meinen drei Dingen dative possessive pronoun
  • dreien meiner Dinge dative possessive pronoun

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

English words that translate to drei

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

How common is drei in German?

drei appears 525 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 drei