knirschen
German, verb/ˈknɪʁʃn̩/
knirschen is spelled K-N-I-R-S-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). Knirschen is a German verb meaning “to scrunch, to crunch” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “ein helles, hartes, reibendes Geräusch machen”.
What does knirschen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to scrunch, to crunch
- 2
to gnash, to grind
- 3
to be wrathful, to pent-up anger
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. ein helles, hartes, reibendes Geräusch machen
noun: 1. knirschendes Geräusch
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 knirschen
- knirscht present singular third-person
- knirschte past
- geknirscht participle past
- haben auxiliary
- knirschend participle present
- knirsche first-person indicative present
- knirschst indicative present second-person
- knirschest second-person singular subjunctive
- knirschet plural second-person subjunctive
- knirschten first-person indicative plural
- knirschtest indicative preterite second-person
- knirschtet indicative plural preterite
- knirsch imperative second-person singular
- habe geknirscht first-person indicative multiword-construction
- knirsche! imperative singular
- knirscht! imperative plural
- geknirscht haben active infinitive perfect
- zu knirschen active extended infinitive
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce knirschen?
- /ˈknɪʁʃn̩/
- [ˈknɪʁʃn̩]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to knirschen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is knirschen in German?
knirschen 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).