sinken
German, verb
sinken is spelled S-I-N-K-E-N (6 letters) and appears 13 times per million words in written German, the 5,698th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Sinken is a German verb meaning “to sink; to submerge; to set; to fall from the sky” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Sinken is a different word: “gerund of sinken”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “untergehen”.
What does sinken mean in English?
verb
- 1
to sink; to submerge; to set; to fall from the sky
Die Sonne ist gesunken.
- 2
to fall; to drop; to decline
noun
- 1
neutergerund of sinken
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. untergehen 2. (fliegend) absteigen; sich nach unten bewegen 3. in einer Flüssigkeit oder Ähnlichem durch die Schwerkraft nach unten gezogen werden 4. weniger oder kleiner werden
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 sinken
- sinkt present singular third-person
- sank past
- gesunken participle past
- sänke past subjunctive
- sein auxiliary
- 3 strong
- sinkend participle present
- sinke first-person indicative present
- sinkst indicative present second-person
- sinkest second-person singular subjunctive
- sinket plural second-person subjunctive
- sanken first-person indicative plural
- sänken first-person formal plural
- sankst indicative preterite second-person
- sankt indicative plural preterite
- sänkest formal rare second-person
- sänkst formal rare second-person
- sänket formal plural rare
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to sinken
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is sinken in German?
sinken appears 13 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).