horchen
German, verb/ˈhɔʁçən/
horchen is spelled H-O-R-C-H-E-N (7 letters) and appears about once in every 3 million words in written German, the 74,397th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Horchen is a German verb meaning “to listen closely (to try to hear, especially a weak sound)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “heimlich bei etwas zuhören”.
What does horchen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to listen closely (to try to hear, especially a weak sound)
- 2
to heed, to obey
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. heimlich bei etwas zuhören 2. sehr aufmerksam (angestrengt) auf bestimmte Geräusche achten 3. auf jemanden/etwas hören
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 horchen
- horcht present singular third-person
- horchte past
- gehorcht participle past
- haben auxiliary
- horchend participle present
- horche first-person indicative present
- horchst indicative present second-person
- horchest second-person singular subjunctive
- horchet plural second-person subjunctive
- horchten first-person indicative plural
- horchtest indicative preterite second-person
- horchtet indicative plural preterite
- horch imperative second-person singular
- habe gehorcht first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gehorcht first-person indicative multiword-construction
- horch! imperative singular
- horche! imperative singular
- horcht! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce horchen?
- /ˈhɔʁçən/
- [ˈhɔɐ̯çn̩]
- [ˈhɔʁçn̩]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to horchen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is horchen in German?
horchen appears about once in every 3 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).