verspannen
German, verb
verspannen is spelled V-E-R-S-P-A-N-N-E-N (10 letters) and appears about once in every 18 million words in written German, the 241,486th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Verspannen is a German verb meaning “to tense up” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Verspannen is a different word: “gerund of verspannen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “Muskulatur verkrampfen”.
What does verspannen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to tense up
- 2
to brace
noun
- 1
neutergerund of verspannen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Muskulatur verkrampfen 2. etwas mittels gezogener (gespannter) Drähte/Stricke befestigen
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 verspannen
- verspannt present singular third-person
- verspannte past
- haben auxiliary
- verspannend participle present
- verspanne first-person indicative present
- verspannst indicative present second-person
- verspannest second-person singular subjunctive
- verspannet plural second-person subjunctive
- verspannten first-person indicative plural
- verspanntest indicative preterite second-person
- verspanntet indicative plural preterite
- verspann imperative second-person singular
- habe verspannt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben verspannt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- verspann! imperative singular
- verspanne! imperative singular
- verspannt! imperative plural
- verspannt haben active infinitive perfect
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is verspannen in German?
verspannen appears about once in every 18 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).