weichen
German, verb
weichen is spelled W-E-I-C-H-E-N (7 letters) and appears 18 times per million words in written German, the 4,345th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Weichen is a German verb meaning “to move farther away, to make room, to yield” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a strong genitive masculine/neuter singular of weich. With a capital, Weichen is a different word: “gerund of weichen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “sich entfernen, weggehen/Platz machen”.
What does weichen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to move farther away, to make room, to yield
jemandem nicht von der Seite weichen
- 2
to be replaced, to disappear [with dative ‘in favor of something’] (especially of buildings/shops and sentiments)
- 3
to wane, to decrease
verb
- 1
to soften, to make more flexible or yielding
- 2
to soften
adjective
- 1
masculineneuterstrong genitive masculine/neuter singular
- 2
weak/mixed genitive/dative all-gender singular
- 3
masculinestrong/weak/mixed accusative masculine singular
- 4
strong dative plural
- 5
weak/mixed all-case plural
noun
- 1
neutergerund of weichen
noun
- 1
plural of Weiche
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. sich entfernen, weggehen/Platz machen 2. nach und nach die Wirkung verlieren, mit der Zeit nachlassen 3. sich von jemandem wegbewegen, sich von ihm zurückziehen
verb: 1. etwas biegsamer, nachgiebiger machen 2. weich 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 weichen
- weicht present singular third-person
- wich past
- gewichen participle past
- sein auxiliary
- 1 strong
- weichend participle present
- weiche first-person indicative present
- weichst indicative present second-person
- weichest second-person singular subjunctive
- weichet plural second-person subjunctive
- wichen first-person indicative plural
- wiche first-person formal rare
- wichst indicative preterite second-person
- wicht indicative plural preterite
- wichest formal rare second-person
- wichet formal plural rare
- weich imperative second-person singular
- weiche! imperative singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to weichen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is weichen in German?
weichen appears 18 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).