fesseln
German, verb
fesseln is spelled F-E-S-S-E-L-N (7 letters) and appears 5.5 times per million words in written German, the 11,404th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Fesseln is a German verb meaning “to chain, to bind” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Fesseln is a different word: “plural of Fessel”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “jemanden (an etwas) festbinden und damit bewegungsunfähig machen”.
What does fesseln mean in English?
verb
- 1
to chain, to bind
Er fesselte ihn an den Händen.
- 2
to rivet (someone's attention), to captivate
noun
- 1
plural of Fessel
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. jemanden (an etwas) festbinden und damit bewegungsunfähig machen 2. jemanden stark beeindrucken, für sich einnehmen
noun: 1. das Festbinden von jemandem, das Anlegen von Fesseln
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 fesseln
- fesselt present singular third-person
- fesselte past
- gefesselt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- fesselnd participle present
- fessle first-person indicative present
- fessele first-person indicative present
- fessel first-person indicative present
- fesselst indicative present second-person
- fesselest second-person singular subjunctive
- fesslest second-person singular subjunctive
- fesselet plural second-person subjunctive
- fesslet plural second-person subjunctive
- fesselten first-person indicative plural
- fesseltest indicative preterite second-person
- fesseltet indicative plural preterite
- fessle! imperative singular
- fesselt! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to fesseln
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is fesseln in German?
fesseln appears 5.5 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).