rätseln
German, verb
rätseln is spelled R-Ä-T-S-E-L-N (7 letters) and appears 1.6 times per million words in written German, the 28,120th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Rätseln is a German verb meaning “to puzzle over” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Rätseln is a different word: “dative plural of Rätsel”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “versuchen, eine Antwort herauszubekommen”.
What does rätseln mean in English?
verb
- 1
to puzzle over
noun
- 1
dative plural of Rätsel
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. versuchen, eine Antwort herauszubekommen
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 rätseln
- rätselt present singular third-person
- rätselte past
- gerätselt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- rätselnd participle present
- rätsle first-person indicative present
- rätsele first-person indicative present
- rätsel first-person indicative present
- rätselst indicative present second-person
- rätselest second-person singular subjunctive
- rätslest second-person singular subjunctive
- rätselet plural second-person subjunctive
- rätslet plural second-person subjunctive
- rätselten first-person indicative plural
- rätseltest indicative preterite second-person
- rätseltet indicative plural preterite
- rätsel! imperative singular
- rätsle! imperative singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is rätseln in German?
rätseln appears 1.6 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).