Eigensinn
German, noun/ˈaɪ̯ɡn̩zɪn/
Eigensinn is spelled E-I-G-E-N-S-I-N-N (9 letters) and appears about once in every 2 million words in written German, the 68,093rd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Eigensinn is a German masculine noun meaning “stubbornness, obstinacy, self-willedness, the quality of refusing to change one's mind, narrow-mindedness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “hartnäckiges Beharren auf einer Meinung oder Absicht (ohne den Rat anderer anzunehmen)”.
What does Eigensinn mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinestubbornness, obstinacy, self-willedness, the quality of refusing to change one's mind, narrow-mindedness
- 2
masculineidiosyncrasy
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
noun: 1. hartnäckiges Beharren auf einer Meinung oder Absicht (ohne den Rat anderer anzunehmen)
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 Eigensinn
- Eigensinnes genitive
- Eigensinns genitive
- Eigensinne dative singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce Eigensinn?
- /ˈaɪ̯ɡn̩zɪn/
- [ˈaɪ̯ɡn̩zɪn]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to Eigensinn
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is Eigensinn in German?
Eigensinn appears about once in every 2 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).