summen
German, verb
summen is spelled S-U-M-M-E-N (6 letters) and appears 7.8 times per million words in written German, the 8,702nd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Summen is a German verb meaning “to buzz; to hum” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Summen is a different word: “plural of Summe”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “ohne Text, meist mit geschlossenen Lippen, die Melodie zu einem Lied von sich geben”.
What does summen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to buzz; to hum
Ich höre die Bienen summen.
noun
- 1
feminineplural of Summe
noun
- 1
neutergerund of summen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. ohne Text, meist mit geschlossenen Lippen, die Melodie zu einem Lied von sich geben 2. etwas (leise) vor sich hin singen 3. Geräusche ähnlich denen eines fliegenden Insekts machen 4. mit für ein Insekt typischen Geräuschen fliegen
noun: 1. summendes Geräusch
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 summen
- summt present singular third-person
- summte past
- gesummt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- summend participle present
- summe first-person indicative present
- summst indicative present second-person
- summest second-person singular subjunctive
- summet plural second-person subjunctive
- summten first-person indicative plural
- summtest indicative preterite second-person
- summtet indicative plural preterite
- summ imperative second-person singular
- habe gesummt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gesummt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- sumsen variant
- summe! imperative singular
- summt! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to summen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is summen in German?
summen appears 7.8 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).