Schwelle
German, noun
Schwelle is spelled S-C-H-W-E-L-L-E (8 letters) and appears 4.6 times per million words in written German, the 13,123rd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Schwelle is a German feminine noun meaning “threshold” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). In lower case, schwelle is a different word: “first-person singular present”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “unterer Querbalken eines Türrahmens, über den man zum Eintreten geht”.
What does Schwelle mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininethreshold
- 2
feminineellipsis of Bahnschwelle: railroad tie, railway sleeper
verb
- 1
first-person singular present
- 2
first/third-person singular subjunctive I
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
noun: 1. unterer Querbalken eines Türrahmens, über den man zum Eintreten geht 2. an der Schwelle von etwas: am (zeitlichen oder örtlichen) Anfang von etwas 3. Minimalwert einer Größe, ab der ein interessierender Effekt einsetzt (Relevanz, Wahrnehmung, Schalten und so weiter) 4. einer der Balken, auf denen die (Eisenbahn-)Schienen ruhen
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 Schwelle
- Schwellen plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to Schwelle
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is Schwelle in German?
Schwelle appears 4.6 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).