wittern
German, verb
wittern is spelled W-I-T-T-E-R-N (7 letters) and appears 1.0 times per million words in written German, the 38,034th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Wittern is a German verb meaning “to scent (to detect the scent of)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Wittern is a different word: “gerund of wittern”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas oder jemanden riechen”.
What does wittern mean in English?
verb
- 1
to scent (to detect the scent of)
- 2
to smell something far with a good olfaction
noun
- 1
neutergerund of wittern
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas oder jemanden riechen 2. versuchen, etwas durch Riechen aufzuspüren, einen Geruch zu erkennen 3. etwas erahnen, vermuten
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 wittern
- wittert present singular third-person
- witterte past
- gewittert participle past
- haben auxiliary
- witternd participle present
- wittre first-person indicative present
- wittere first-person indicative present
- witter first-person indicative present
- witterst indicative present second-person
- witterest second-person singular subjunctive
- wittrest second-person singular subjunctive
- witteret plural second-person subjunctive
- wittret plural second-person subjunctive
- witterten first-person indicative plural
- wittertest indicative preterite second-person
- wittertet indicative plural preterite
- wittere! imperative singular
- wittert! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is wittern in German?
wittern appears 1.0 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).