lähmen
German, verb
lähmen is spelled L-Ä-H-M-E-N (6 letters) and appears about once in every 1 million words in written German, the 51,196th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Lähmen is a German verb meaning “to paralyze” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). Without its umlaut, lahmen is a different word: “strong genitive masculine/neuter singular”. On this page, Lahmen is a different word: “dative/accusative singular”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “einem System seine Funktion nehmen (teilweise nur für bestimmte Zeit); eine Lähmung hervorrufen”.
What does lähmen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to paralyze
sich wie gelähmt fühlen
adjective
- 1
masculineneuterstrong genitive masculine/neuter singular
- 2
weak/mixed genitive/dative all-gender singular
- 3
masculinestrong/weak/mixed accusative masculine singular
- 4
strong dative plural
- 5
weak/mixed all-case plural
noun
- 1
masculinedative/accusative singular
- 2
masculineall-case plural
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. einem System seine Funktion nehmen (teilweise nur für bestimmte Zeit); eine Lähmung hervorrufen
verb: 1. aufgrund einer Verletzung, Behinderung ungleichmäßig gehen; nicht recht vorankommen (Wirtschaft, Konsum, Konjunktur)
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 lähmen
- lähmt present singular third-person
- lähmte past
- gelähmt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- lähmend participle present
- lähme first-person indicative present
- lähmst indicative present second-person
- lähmest second-person singular subjunctive
- lähmet plural second-person subjunctive
- lähmten first-person indicative plural
- lähmtest indicative preterite second-person
- lähmtet indicative plural preterite
- lähm imperative second-person singular
- habe gelähmt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gelähmt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- lähme! imperative singular
- lähmt! imperative plural
- gelähmt haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to lähmen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is lähmen in German?
lähmen appears about once in every 1 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).