-eln
German, suffix
-eln is spelled E-L-N (3 letters) and appears about once in every 5 million words in written German, the 110,302nd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). -eln is a German suffix meaning “Suffix used to form verbs, chiefly from other verbs, but also from nouns and adjectives. The resulting verb often has an…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, ELn is a different word: “dative plural of EL”.
What does -eln mean in English?
suffix
- 1
Suffix used to form verbs, chiefly from other verbs, but also from nouns and adjectives. The resulting verb often has an iterative/frequentative or a diminutive meaning.
kippen (“to tilt”) + -eln → kippeln (“to tilt back and forth”)
noun
- 1
masculinedative plural of EL
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
noun: 1. marxistisch orientierte Guerilla-Bewegung in Kolumbien
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
How common is -eln in German?
-eln appears about once in every 5 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).