scheinen
German, verb
scheinen is spelled S-C-H-E-I-N-E-N (8 letters) and appears 35 times per million words in written German, the 2,344th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Scheinen is a German verb meaning “to shine; to gleam” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Scheinen is a different word: “gerund of scheinen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “Licht aussenden”.
What does scheinen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to shine; to gleam
- 2
to seem; to appear; to look
Es scheint mir, dass …
noun
- 1
neutergerund of scheinen
noun
- 1
masculinedative plural of Schein
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Licht aussenden 2. in einer bestimmten Art und Weise wirken oder aussehen; einen Eindruck erwecken
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 scheinen
- scheint present singular third-person
- schien past
- geschienen participle past
- gescheint dialectal obsolete participle
- haben auxiliary
- 1 strong
- scheinend participle present
- scheine first-person indicative present
- scheinst indicative present second-person
- scheinest second-person singular subjunctive
- scheinet plural second-person subjunctive
- schienen first-person indicative plural
- schiene first-person formal rare
- schienst indicative preterite second-person
- schient indicative plural preterite
- schienest formal rare second-person
- schienet formal plural rare
- schein imperative second-person singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to scheinen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is scheinen in German?
scheinen appears 35 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).