filzen
German, verb
filzen is spelled F-I-L-Z-E-N (6 letters) and appears about once in every 2 million words in written German, the 58,632nd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Filzen is a German verb meaning “to frisk (search someone by feeling their clothes)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Filzen is a different word: “dative plural of Filz”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “auf illegale Personen, Waren prüfen; seitens Behörden etwas kontrollieren”.
What does filzen mean in English?
verb
- 1
colloquialto frisk (search someone by feeling their clothes)
- 2
colloquialto sleep, rest
- 3
to felt (make into felt)
- 4
to become like felt
noun
- 1
masculinedative plural of Filz
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. aus Filz bestehend, hergestellt
verb: 1. auf illegale Personen, Waren prüfen; seitens Behörden etwas kontrollieren 2. (tief) schlafen, sich ausruhen 3. Wolle zu Filz beziehungsweise zu Gegenständen aus Filz verarbeiten 4. zu Filz [1] werden, in der Beschaffenheit so wie Filz werden
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 filzen
- filzt present singular third-person
- filzte past
- gefilzt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- filzend participle present
- filze first-person indicative present
- filzest second-person singular subjunctive
- filzet plural second-person subjunctive
- filzten first-person indicative plural
- filztest indicative preterite second-person
- filztet indicative plural preterite
- filz imperative second-person singular
- habe gefilzt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gefilzt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- filzener positive nominative strong
- filzene positive nominative strong
- filzenes positive nominative strong
- filzenen positive genitive strong
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to filzen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is filzen in German?
filzen 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).