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lösen

German, verb

lösen is spelled L-Ö-S-E-N (5 letters) and appears 43 times per million words in written German, the 1,972nd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Lösen is a German verb meaning “to loose; to loosen; to detach; to remove” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). Without its umlaut, losen is a different word: “to draw lots; to draw straws; to toss up”. On this page, Losen is a different word: “dative plural of Los”. With a capital, Lösen is a different word: “gerund of lösen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “eine Aufgabe, ein Problem bewältigen”.

What does lösen mean in English?

verb

  1. 1

    to loose; to loosen; to detach; to remove

    (etwas) von (etwas anderes) lösen

  2. 2

    to separate

  3. 3

    to cast off; to remove

  4. 4

    to solve; to resolve; to answer

  5. 5

    to come loose

  6. 6

    to dissolve

  7. 7

    to buy

    eine Fahrkarte lösen

  8. 8

    to release; to undo; to untie; to ease

verb

as losen
  1. 1

    to draw lots; to draw straws; to toss up

adjective

as losen
  1. 1

    masculineneuterstrong genitive masculine/neuter singular

  2. 2

    weak/mixed genitive/dative all-gender singular

  3. 3

    masculinestrong/weak/mixed accusative masculine singular

  4. 4

    strong dative plural

  5. 5

    weak/mixed all-case plural

noun

as Losen
  1. 1

    neuterdative plural of Los

noun

as Lösen
  1. 1

    neutergerund of lösen

Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How German dictionaries define it

verb: 1. eine Entscheidung per Los herbeiführen

verb: 1. horchen, zuhören

verb: 1. als Verlierer dastehen, nicht siegreich sein

verb: 1. eine Aufgabe, ein Problem bewältigen 2. eine Fahrkarte, ein Ticket kaufen 3. eine Verbindung trennen 4. etwas öffnen, aufbinden, aufknoten, auftrennen

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 lösen

  • löst present singular third-person
  • löste past
  • gelöst participle past
  • haben auxiliary
  • lösend participle present
  • löse first-person indicative present
  • lösest second-person singular subjunctive
  • löset plural second-person subjunctive
  • lösten first-person indicative plural
  • löstest indicative preterite second-person
  • löstet indicative plural preterite
  • lös imperative second-person singular
  • habe gelöst first-person indicative multiword-construction
  • haben gelöst first-person indicative multiword-construction
  • lose present
  • lost present
  • loste past
  • lose! imperative singular

Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to lösen

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is lösen in German?

lösen appears 43 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).

What to look up after lösen