schwarzsehen
German, verb
schwarzsehen is spelled S-C-H-W-A-R-Z-S-E-H-E-N (12 letters) and appears about once in every 28 million words in written German, the 309,493rd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Schwarzsehen is a German verb meaning “to be pessimistic” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Schwarzsehen is a different word: “gerund of schwarzsehen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “fernsehen, ohne Rundfunkgebühren bezahlt zu haben”.
What does schwarzsehen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to be pessimistic
- 2
to watch television without paying one's license
noun
- 1
neutergerund of schwarzsehen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. fernsehen, ohne Rundfunkgebühren bezahlt zu haben 2. für die Zukunft negative Erwartungen haben
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 schwarzsehen
- sieht schwarz present singular third-person
- sah schwarz past
- schwarzgesehen participle past
- sähe schwarz past subjunctive
- haben auxiliary
- 5 strong
- schwarzsehend participle present
- schwarzzusehen infinitive infinitive-zu
- sehe schwarz first-person indicative present
- sehen schwarz first-person indicative plural
- siehst schwarz indicative present second-person
- seht schwarz indicative plural present
- sehest schwarz second-person singular subjunctive
- sehet schwarz plural second-person subjunctive
- sahen schwarz first-person indicative plural
- sähen schwarz first-person plural subjunctive
- sahst schwarz indicative preterite second-person
- saht schwarz indicative plural preterite
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is schwarzsehen in German?
schwarzsehen appears about once in every 28 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).