ferne
German, adjective
ferne is spelled F-E-R-N-E (5 letters) and appears 12 times per million words in written German, the 6,162nd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Ferne is a German feminine adjective meaning “dated or northern colloquial predicative and adverbial form of fern” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular of fern. With a capital, Ferne is a different word: “distance”.
What does ferne mean in English?
adjective
- 1
femininestrong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
- 2
strong nominative/accusative plural
- 3
weak nominative all-gender singular
- 4
feminineneuterweak accusative feminine/neuter singular
- 5
colloquialdateddated or northern colloquial predicative and adverbial form of fern
noun
- 1
femininedistance
- 2
femininedistant lands
- 3
femininefuture, past
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
noun: 1. große räumliche Distanz 2. großer zeitlicher Abstand 3. entfernte Länder, Gegenden, Gebiete
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 ferne
- Fernen plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to ferne
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is ferne in German?
ferne appears 12 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).