tarnen
German, verb
tarnen is spelled T-A-R-N-E-N (6 letters) and appears 1.3 times per million words in written German, the 32,981st most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Tarnen is a German verb meaning “to camouflage” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Tarnen is a different word: “gerund of tarnen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “verschleiern; etwas mithilfe von Maßnahmen an die Umgebung anpassen, damit es nicht erkannt wird”.
What does tarnen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to camouflage
- 2
to mask, disguise, hide, cover
- 3
to cloak
noun
- 1
neutergerund of tarnen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. verschleiern; etwas mithilfe von Maßnahmen an die Umgebung anpassen, damit es nicht erkannt wird 2. etwas für etwas anderes ausgeben, um das wahre Wesen zu verbergen
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 tarnen
- tarnt present singular third-person
- tarnte past
- getarnt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- tarnend participle present
- tarne first-person indicative present
- tarnst indicative present second-person
- tarnest second-person singular subjunctive
- tarnet plural second-person subjunctive
- tarnten first-person indicative plural
- tarntest indicative preterite second-person
- tarntet indicative plural preterite
- tarn imperative second-person singular
- habe getarnt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben getarnt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- tarne! imperative singular
- tarnt! imperative plural
- getarnt haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to tarnen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is tarnen in German?
tarnen appears 1.3 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).