zerreiben
German, verb
zerreiben is spelled Z-E-R-R-E-I-B-E-N (9 letters) and appears about once in every 8 million words in written German, the 152,733rd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Zerreiben is a German verb meaning “to grind down, triturate” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Zerreiben is a different word: “gerund of zerreiben”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas durch reiben zerkleinern”.
What does zerreiben mean in English?
verb
- 1
to grind down, triturate
noun
- 1
neutergerund of zerreiben
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas durch reiben zerkleinern 2. eine feindliche Truppe vollständig auseinandertreiben, auch übertragen für andere Gruppierungen verwendet
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 zerreiben
- zerreibt present singular third-person
- zerrieb past
- zerrieben participle past
- haben auxiliary
- 1 strong
- zerreibend participle present
- zerreibe first-person indicative present
- zerreibst indicative present second-person
- zerreibest second-person singular subjunctive
- zerreibet plural second-person subjunctive
- zerriebe first-person formal rare
- zerriebst indicative preterite second-person
- zerriebt indicative plural preterite
- zerriebest formal rare second-person
- zerriebet formal plural rare
- zerreib imperative second-person singular
- zerreibe! imperative singular
- zerreibt! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to zerreiben
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is zerreiben in German?
zerreiben appears about once in every 8 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).