schwenken
German, verb
schwenken is spelled S-C-H-W-E-N-K-E-N (9 letters) and appears 1.4 times per million words in written German, the 30,497th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Schwenken is a German verb meaning “to wave, to brandish (a long item, e.g. a flag or sword)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Schwenken is a different word: “gerund of schwenken”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “hin und her bewegen, wedeln”.
What does schwenken mean in English?
verb
- 1
to wave, to brandish (a long item, e.g. a flag or sword)
- 2
to swivel (a lamp etc.)
- 3
to pan (a camera)
- 4
to flip food in a pan
- 5
to swing
noun
- 1
neutergerund of schwenken
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. hin und her bewegen, wedeln 2. die Bewegungsrichtung ändern
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 schwenken
- schwenkt present singular third-person
- schwenkte past
- geschwenkt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- schwenkend participle present
- schwenke first-person indicative present
- schwenkst indicative present second-person
- schwenkest second-person singular subjunctive
- schwenket plural second-person subjunctive
- schwenkten first-person indicative plural
- schwenktest indicative preterite second-person
- schwenktet indicative plural preterite
- schwenk imperative second-person singular
- habe geschwenkt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben geschwenkt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- schwenk! imperative singular
- schwenke! imperative singular
- schwenkt! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to schwenken
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is schwenken in German?
schwenken appears 1.4 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).