zappen
German, verb
zappen is spelled Z-A-P-P-E-N (6 letters) and appears about once in every 4 million words in written German, the 99,595th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Zappen is a German verb meaning “to zap, channel surf, channel hop (change TV channels repeatedly)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Zappen is a different word: “alternative form of Zapfen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “in den Fernsehkanälen (meist) mit der Fernbedienung pausenlos nach Sendungen von Interesse suchen”.
What does zappen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to zap, channel surf, channel hop (change TV channels repeatedly)
noun
- 1
colloquialmasculinealternative form of Zapfen
noun
- 1
neutergerund of zappen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. in den Fernsehkanälen (meist) mit der Fernbedienung pausenlos nach Sendungen von Interesse suchen
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 zappen
- zappt present singular third-person
- zappte past
- gezappt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- zappend participle present
- zappe first-person indicative present
- zappst indicative present second-person
- zappest second-person singular subjunctive
- zappet plural second-person subjunctive
- zappten first-person indicative plural
- zapptest indicative preterite second-person
- zapptet indicative plural preterite
- zapp imperative second-person singular
- habe gezappt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gezappt first-person indicative multiword-construction
- zappe! imperative singular
- zapp! imperative singular
- zappt! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to zappen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is zappen in German?
zappen 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).