schärfen
German, verb
schärfen is spelled S-C-H-Ä-R-F-E-N (8 letters) and appears 7.1 times per million words in written German, the 9,345th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Schärfen is a German verb meaning “to sharpen” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Schärfen is a different word: “plural of Schärfe”. Without its umlaut, scharfen is a different word: “strong genitive masculine/neuter singular”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “geschmacklich (würzen)”.
What does schärfen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to sharpen
- 2
to strengthen; to sharpen
noun
- 1
feminineplural of Schärfe
adjective
- 1
masculineneuterstrong genitive masculine/neuter singular
- 2
weak/mixed genitive/dative all-gender singular
- 3
masculinestrong/weak/mixed accusative masculine singular
- 4
strong dative plural
- 5
weak/mixed all-case plural
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. geschmacklich (würzen) 2. eine Klinge, Schneide oder Ähnliches scharf oder schärfer machen 3. optisch (zum Beispiel eine Linse, die Sicht, ein Bild) scharf stellen 4. besser machen; erhöhen; intensivieren
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 schärfen
- schärft present singular third-person
- schärfte past
- geschärft participle past
- haben auxiliary
- schärfend participle present
- schärfe first-person indicative present
- schärfst indicative present second-person
- schärfest second-person singular subjunctive
- schärfet plural second-person subjunctive
- schärften first-person indicative plural
- schärftest indicative preterite second-person
- schärftet indicative plural preterite
- schärf imperative second-person singular
- habe geschärft first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben geschärft first-person indicative multiword-construction
- schärfe! imperative singular
- schärf! imperative singular
- schärft! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to schärfen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is schärfen in German?
schärfen appears 7.1 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).