mahnen
German, verb
mahnen is spelled M-A-H-N-E-N (6 letters) and appears 1.3 times per million words in written German, the 32,479th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Mahnen is a German verb meaning “to urge (someone) to do a specific, necessary task” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, Mähnen is a different word: “plural of Mähne”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “eindringlich zu einem bestimmten, als erforderlich erachteten Handeln und Benehmen auffordern, drängen”.
What does mahnen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to urge (someone) to do a specific, necessary task
- 2
to beg fervidly
- 3
to warn (someone) of (something) emphatically
- 4
to remind pressingly, admonish
noun
- 1
plural of Mähne
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. eindringlich zu einem bestimmten, als erforderlich erachteten Handeln und Benehmen auffordern, drängen 2. energisch bitten 3. ausdrücklich vor etwas warnen 4. jemanden auf noch zu Erledigendes, Leistendes, Versprochenes nachdrücklich aufmerksam machen
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 mahnen
- mahnt present singular third-person
- mahnte past
- gemahnt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- mahnend participle present
- mahne first-person indicative present
- mahnst indicative present second-person
- mahnest second-person singular subjunctive
- mahnet plural second-person subjunctive
- mahnten first-person indicative plural
- mahntest indicative preterite second-person
- mahntet indicative plural preterite
- mahn imperative second-person singular
- habe gemahnt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gemahnt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- mahne! imperative singular
- mahn! imperative singular
- mahnt! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to mahnen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is mahnen in German?
mahnen appears 1.3 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).