schwemmen
German, verb
schwemmen is spelled S-C-H-W-E-M-M-E-N (9 letters) and appears about once in every 14 million words in written German, the 211,221st most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Schwemmen is a German verb meaning “to wash (move by the current of water)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Schwemmen is a different word: “plural of Schwemme”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas in Strömungsrichtung weiterbewegen”.
What does schwemmen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to wash (move by the current of water)
Die Leiche wurde ans Ufer geschwemmt.
- 2
to bring (something somewhere) in large quantities
noun
- 1
plural of Schwemme
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas in Strömungsrichtung weiterbewegen 2. Wäsche mit viel Wasser spülen 3. in Wasser einweichen 4. zusammengebundene Baumstämme auf einem Fließgewässer transportieren
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 schwemmen
- schwemmt present singular third-person
- schwemmte past
- geschwemmt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- schwemmend participle present
- schwemme first-person indicative present
- schwemmst indicative present second-person
- schwemmest second-person singular subjunctive
- schwemmet plural second-person subjunctive
- schwemmten first-person indicative plural
- schwemmtest indicative preterite second-person
- schwemmtet indicative plural preterite
- schwemm imperative second-person singular
- habe geschwemmt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben geschwemmt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- schwemm! imperative singular
- schwemme! imperative singular
- schwemmt! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is schwemmen in German?
schwemmen appears about once in every 14 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).