rotten
German, verb
rotten is spelled R-O-T-T-E-N (6 letters) and appears 1.2 times per million words in written German, the 34,034th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Rotten is a German verb meaning “To rot, to decay” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Rotten is a different word: “plural of Rotte”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “faulen, verfallen”.
What does rotten mean in English?
verb
- 1
To rot, to decay.
Das Holz ist feucht und rottet langsam vor sich hin, aber es trägt das Dach.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo form into a gang, to rout, squad.
noun
- 1
feminineplural of Rotte
noun
- 1
neutergerund of rotten
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. faulen, verfallen 2. eine Rotte bilden
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 rotten
- rottet present singular third-person
- rottete past
- gerottet participle past
- haben auxiliary
- rottend participle present
- rotte first-person indicative present
- rottest indicative present second-person
- rotteten first-person indicative plural
- rottetest indicative preterite second-person
- rottetet indicative plural preterite
- rott imperative second-person singular
- habe gerottet first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gerottet first-person indicative multiword-construction
- rotte! imperative singular
- rottet! imperative plural
- sein auxiliary perfect
- gerottet haben active infinitive perfect
- zu rotten active extended infinitive
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to rotten
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is rotten in German?
rotten appears 1.2 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).