gebrechen
German, verb
gebrechen is spelled G-E-B-R-E-C-H-E-N (9 letters) and appears about once in every 2 million words in written German, the 56,856th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Gebrechen is a German verb meaning “to lack, to be needed” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Gebrechen is a different word: “disability, infirmity (lasting physical damage)”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “fehlen, mangeln”.
What does gebrechen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to lack, to be needed
- 2
for there to be a lack [with dative ‘to someone/something’, along with genitive or an (+ dative) ‘of something’] (idiomatically translated by English lack or need with the dative object as the subject)
noun
- 1
neuterdisability, infirmity (lasting physical damage)
- 2
Austrianeuterdamage, a technical bug
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
noun: 1. andauernde (körperliche, gesundheitliche) Beeinträchtigung 2. Beschädigung, technische Störung
verb: 1. fehlen, mangeln
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 gebrechen
- Gebrechens genitive
- gebricht present singular third-person
- gebrach past
- gebrochen participle past
- gebräche past subjunctive
- haben auxiliary
- 4 strong
- gebrechend participle present
- gebreche singular subjunctive subjunctive-i
- gebrachen indicative plural preterite
- gebrächen formal plural rare
- hat gebrochen indicative multiword-construction perfect
- haben gebrochen indicative multiword-construction perfect
- habe gebrochen multiword-construction perfect singular
- hatte gebrochen indicative multiword-construction pluperfect
- hatten gebrochen indicative multiword-construction pluperfect
- hätte gebrochen multiword-construction pluperfect singular
- hätten gebrochen multiword-construction pluperfect plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is gebrechen in German?
gebrechen 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).