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spannen

German, verb

spannen is spelled S-P-A-N-N-E-N (7 letters) and appears 2.8 times per million words in written German, the 18,843rd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Spannen is a German verb meaning “to stretch” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With an umlaut, spännen is a different word: “first/third-person plural subjunctive II of spinnen”. With a capital, Spannen is a different word: “plural of Spanne”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas mit Kraftaufwand glatt machen”.

What does spannen mean in English?

verb

  1. 1

    to stretch

  2. 2

    to tighten

  3. 3

    to tension

  4. 4

    to be taut

  5. 5

    to harness

  6. 6

    to span

  7. 7

    colloquialto stare, gaze

  8. 8

    colloquialto peep, spy on someone

verb

as spännen
  1. 1

    first/third-person plural subjunctive II of spinnen

noun

as Spannen
  1. 1

    feminineplural of Spanne

Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How German dictionaries define it

verb: 1. etwas mit Kraftaufwand glatt machen 2. etwas befestigen, einfügen 3. fest, (zu) straff sein 4. fest, stramm 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 spannen

  • spannt present singular third-person
  • spannte past
  • gespannt participle past
  • haben auxiliary
  • spannend participle present
  • spanne first-person indicative present
  • spannst indicative present second-person
  • spannest second-person singular subjunctive
  • spannet plural second-person subjunctive
  • spannten first-person indicative plural
  • spanntest indicative preterite second-person
  • spanntet indicative plural preterite
  • spann imperative second-person singular
  • habe gespannt first-person indicative multiword-construction
  • haben gespannt first-person indicative multiword-construction
  • spanne! imperative singular
  • spannt! imperative plural
  • gespannt haben active infinitive perfect

Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to spannen

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is spannen in German?

spannen appears 2.8 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).

What to look up after spannen