meinen
German, verb/ˈmaɪ̯nən/
meinen is spelled M-E-I-N-E-N (6 letters) and appears 331 times per million words in written German, the 279th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Meinen is a German verb meaning “to opine, to think; to believe; to suppose” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also an accusative masculine singular of mein. The German Wiktionary defines it as “einen bestimmten Standpunkt oder eine bestimmte Meinung vertreten”.
What does meinen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to opine, to think; to believe; to suppose
Ich meine, das war letztes oder vorletztes Jahr.
- 2
to say; to utter; not used with nouns; not used in the imperative and rarely in the infinitive
Entschuldige, was meintest du gerade?
- 3
to mean; to be convinced or sincere about something
Das sagt er nicht nur, das meint er auch.
- 4
to mean; to have in mind; to convey
Was meintest du damit?
- 5
archaicto mean; to signify
Was meint dieses Wort?
determiner
- 1
masculineaccusative masculine singular
- 2
masculinedative plural
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. einen bestimmten Standpunkt oder eine bestimmte Meinung vertreten 2. jemanden oder etwas auswählen, speziell im Auge haben 3. etwas sagen; in Worte fassen 4. etwas bedeuten; zu etwas eine Aussage treffen
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 meinen
- meint present singular third-person
- meinte past
- gemeint participle past
- haben auxiliary
- meinend participle present
- meine first-person indicative present
- meinst indicative present second-person
- meinest second-person singular subjunctive
- meinet plural second-person subjunctive
- meinten first-person indicative plural
- meintest indicative preterite second-person
- meintet indicative plural preterite
- mein imperative second-person singular
- habe gemeint first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gemeint first-person indicative multiword-construction
- meynen obsolete
- meine! imperative singular
- meint! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce meinen?
- /ˈmaɪ̯nən/
- [ˈmaɪ̯nən]
- [ˈmaɪ̯nn̩]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to meinen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is meinen in German?
meinen appears 331 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).