untermalen
German, verb/ˈʊntərmaːlən/
untermalen is spelled U-N-T-E-R-M-A-L-E-N (10 letters) and appears about once in every 4 million words in written German, the 104,034th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Untermalen is a German verb meaning “to underpaint” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “als unterste Schicht/Untergrund/Hintergrund auftragen”.
What does untermalen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to underpaint
- 2
to underscore (with background music)
- 3
to underscore, to underline, to emphasise, to accompany
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. als unterste Schicht/Untergrund/Hintergrund auftragen 2. etwas als (bereichernde) Begleitung einsetzen
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 untermalen
- untermalt present singular third-person
- untermalte past
- haben auxiliary
- untermalend participle present
- untermale first-person indicative present
- untermalst indicative present second-person
- untermalest second-person singular subjunctive
- untermalet plural second-person subjunctive
- untermalten first-person indicative plural
- untermaltest indicative preterite second-person
- untermaltet indicative plural preterite
- untermal imperative second-person singular
- habe untermalt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben untermalt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- untermal! imperative singular
- untermale! imperative singular
- untermalt! imperative plural
- untermalt haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce untermalen?
- /ˈʊntərmaːlən/
- /ʊntɐ-/
- /-maːln̩/
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is untermalen in German?
untermalen appears about once in every 4 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).