schmerzen
German, verb
schmerzen is spelled S-C-H-M-E-R-Z-E-N (9 letters) and appears 34 times per million words in written German, the 2,442nd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Schmerzen is a German verb meaning “to hurt, to ache (to cause physical/bodily pain, often of parts of one's own body)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Schmerzen is a different word: “plural of Schmerz”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “körperliche Schmerzen verursachen”.
What does schmerzen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to hurt, to ache (to cause physical/bodily pain, often of parts of one's own body)
- 2
to pain, to hurt (to cause emotional pain)
noun
- 1
masculineplural of Schmerz
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. körperliche Schmerzen verursachen 2. Gefühle wie Trauer oder Unglück wegen eines Verlustes oder einer Niederlage verursachen
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 schmerzen
- schmerzt present singular third-person
- schmerzte past
- geschmerzt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- schmerzend participle present
- schmerze first-person indicative present
- schmerzest second-person singular subjunctive
- schmerzet plural second-person subjunctive
- schmerzten first-person indicative plural
- schmerztest indicative preterite second-person
- schmerztet indicative plural preterite
- schmerz imperative second-person singular
- habe geschmerzt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben geschmerzt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- schmerz! imperative singular
- schmerze! imperative singular
- schmerzt! imperative plural
- geschmerzt haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to schmerzen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is schmerzen in German?
schmerzen appears 34 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).