gelingen
German, verb
gelingen is spelled G-E-L-I-N-G-E-N (8 letters) and appears 13 times per million words in written German, the 5,816th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Gelingen is a German verb meaning “to turn out well, to work out, to go smoothly, to succeed, to come off” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Gelingen is a different word: “gerund of gelingen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas erfolgreich zu Ende bringen, erfolgreich zustande kommen”.
What does gelingen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to turn out well, to work out, to go smoothly, to succeed, to come off
noun
- 1
neutergerund of gelingen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas erfolgreich zu Ende bringen, erfolgreich zustande kommen
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 gelingen
- gelingt present singular third-person
- gelang past
- gelungen participle past
- gelänge past subjunctive
- sein auxiliary
- 3 strong
- gelingend participle present
- gelinge first-person indicative present
- gelingst indicative present second-person
- gelingest second-person singular subjunctive
- gelinget plural second-person subjunctive
- gelangen first-person indicative plural
- gelängen first-person formal plural
- gelangst indicative preterite second-person
- gelangt indicative plural preterite
- gelängest formal rare second-person
- gelängst formal rare second-person
- gelänget formal plural rare
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to gelingen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is gelingen in German?
gelingen appears 13 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).