zermürben
[t͡sɛɐ̯ˈmʏʁbn̩]
The verdict
“zermürben” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - körperliche/seelische Belastbarkeit/Widerstandskraft (einer Person, einer Gruppe, …) langsam zunichtemachen
Corpus desk
Index DE-zermurben · zermürben · German
zermürben · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "Z" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | zermürben |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [t͡sɛɐ̯ˈmʏʁbn̩] |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „zermürben“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
zermürben is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed [t͡sɛɐ̯ˈmʏʁbn̩]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for zermürben in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct German form is zermürben, spelled Z-E-R-M-Ü-R-B-E-N.
Definition
- 1körperliche/seelische Belastbarkeit/Widerstandskraft (einer Person, einer Gruppe, …) langsam zunichtemachen
- 2(ein Material, einen Gegenstand, einen Stoff, …) brüchig/zerbrechlich machen
- 3brüchig werden und zerfallen
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how zermürben appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
„[Es] zermürbt Schwestern und Pfleger, wenn sie im Pflegealltag mehr Zeit für Dokumentation und Schreibkram brauchen, als sie Alten und Patienten widmen können.“
„Eine gute Verteidigung braucht Flexibilität und Tiefe. Man muss den Gegner zermürben und ihn über längere Zeit, möglichst ohne eigene Verluste, dezimieren.“
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.