schönfärben
German, verb
schönfärben is spelled S-C-H-Ö-N-F-Ä-R-B-E-N (11 letters) and appears about once in every 45 million words in written German, the 401,709th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Schönfärben is a German verb meaning “to whitewash, to window-dress” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Schönfärben is a different word: “gerund of schönfärben”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas (meist Negatives/Unvorteilhaftes) besser darstellen, als es tatsächlich ist; etwas zu…”.
What does schönfärben mean in English?
verb
- 1
to whitewash, to window-dress
die Geschichte schönfärben
noun
- 1
neutergerund of schönfärben
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas (meist Negatives/Unvorteilhaftes) besser darstellen, als es tatsächlich ist; etwas zu positiv/optimistisch darstellen 2. einen Stoff mit heller Farbe färben/versehen
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 schönfärben
- färbt schön present singular third-person
- färbte schön past
- schöngefärbt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- schönfärbend participle present
- schönzufärben infinitive infinitive-zu
- färbe schön first-person indicative present
- färben schön first-person indicative plural
- färbst schön indicative present second-person
- färbest schön second-person singular subjunctive
- färbet schön plural second-person subjunctive
- färbten schön first-person indicative plural
- färbtest schön indicative preterite second-person
- färbtet schön indicative plural preterite
- färb schön! imperative singular
- färbe schön! imperative singular
- färbt schön! imperative plural
- schöngefärbt haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to schönfärben
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is schönfärben in German?
schönfärben appears about once in every 45 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).