nahe
German, preposition
nahe is spelled N-A-H-E (4 letters) and appears 107 times per million words in written German, the 802nd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Nahe is a German preposition meaning “near” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular of nah. On this page, Nähe is a different word: “nearness, closeness”. With an umlaut, nähe is a different word: “first-person singular present”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “bei, unweit”.
What does nahe mean in English?
preposition
- 1
near
Brühl ist eine kleine Stadt nahe Köln.
adjective
- 1
datedalternative form of nah
adverb
- 1
datedalternative form of nah
adjective
- 1
femininestrong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
- 2
strong nominative/accusative plural
- 3
weak nominative all-gender singular
- 4
feminineneuterweak accusative feminine/neuter singular
noun
- 1
femininenearness, closeness
- 2
femininevicinity, neighbourhood, the area close by
verb
- 1
first-person singular present
- 2
first/third-person singular subjunctive I
- 3
singular imperative
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. räumlich nahe, wenig entfernt 2. zeitlich nahe, baldig 3. eng, persönlich vertraut
preposition: 1. bei, unweit
noun: 1. geringe räumliche Entfernung, von einem bestimmten Punkt aus gesehen 2. eine Zeit, die (von einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt aus gesehen) nicht weit in der Zukunft liegt 3. enge persönliche oder soziale Verbundenheit 4. große, flach gebaute Fähre mit geringem Tiefgang
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 nahe
- naher masculine nominative singular
- näher comparative
- am nächsten superlative
- nahes neuter nominative singular
- nahen genitive masculine singular
- nahem dative masculine singular
- der nahe definite includes-article masculine
- die nahe definite feminine includes-article
- das nahe definite includes-article neuter
- die nahen definite includes-article nominative
- des nahen definite genitive includes-article
- der nahen definite feminine genitive
- dem nahen dative definite includes-article
- den nahen dative definite includes-article
- nah variant
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to nahe
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is nahe in German?
nahe appears 107 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).