hehlen
German, verb/heːlən/
hehlen is spelled H-E-H-L-E-N (6 letters) and appears about once in every 10 million words in written German, the 170,338th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Hehlen is a German verb meaning “to fence, to illegally trade or traffic in” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “illegal mit gestohlenen Gütern handeln”.
What does hehlen mean in English?
verb
- 1
archaicto hide, to conceal, to hele
- 2
rareto fence, to illegally trade or traffic in
Der Verurteilte hatte jahrelang mit Autoradios gehehlt.
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. illegal mit gestohlenen Gütern handeln 2. verbergen, verheimlichen, verhüllen 3. dabei helfen, einen Diebstahl, einen Raub oder auch eine andere Straftat zu verbergen
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 hehlen
- hehlt present singular third-person
- hehlte past
- gehehlt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- hehlend participle present
- hehle first-person indicative present
- hehlst indicative present second-person
- hehlest second-person singular subjunctive
- hehlet plural second-person subjunctive
- hehlten first-person indicative plural
- hehltest indicative preterite second-person
- hehltet indicative plural preterite
- hehl imperative second-person singular
- habe gehehlt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gehehlt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- hehl! imperative singular
- hehle! imperative singular
- hehlt! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce hehlen?
- /heːlən/
- /heːln̩/
- [ˈheːlən]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is hehlen in German?
hehlen appears about once in every 10 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).