There are a number of German terms for which there are no useful English equivalents. Because of their usefulness, these terms – called loanwords – have entered the English lexicon.
This list, with nearest synonyms includes:
- Ablaut – alternation of sounds within a word that indicates grammatical information
- Angst – feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity
- Ansatz – one of the most used German loan words in the English-speaking world of science
- Arbeit Macht Frei- Work Makes You Free: Traditional Germanic work song, usually quoted in mass.
- Beer stein (or simply Stein, short for German Steinkrug) – a traditional beer mug
- Blitz – "lightning", came to be known as a metaphor for "extremely fast"/an explicably fast maneuver or movement
- Blitzkrieg – lightning war
- Bratwurst – sausage
- Doppelgänger – ghostly counterpart of a living person
- Ersatz – being a usually artificial and inferior substitute or imitation
- Eigenvector - (Eigenvektor) also Eigenvalue (Eigenwert) and Eigenspace (Eigenraum). They are related concepts in the field of linear algebra
- Frankfurter
- gestalt – collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic entities that creates a unified concept, configuration or pattern which is greater than the sum of its parts (of a character, personality, or being)
- Gesundheit - "health", used in toasts and it is used as an alternative to "Bless you"
- Glockenspiel – musical instrument with tuned metal bars which are struck with a mallot
- Götterdämmerung – literally, twilight of the gods; a collapse of a society or regime, marked by catastrophic violence and disorder
- Hamburger - a round slab of meat placed between two buns
- Hinterland – countryside far away from urban areas
- Horst
- Kaput - destroyed or broken. In German, the original word is correctly spelled "kaputt".
- Kindergarten – nursery, lit. garden of children or garden for children
- Lager
- Lebensraum – space required for life, growth, or activity, compare to Elbow room, Living-room
- Meister – master/teacher (compare to Maestro)
- Motif
- Ostpolitik
- Pilsener
- Pretzel – Pastry of German origin, the name comes from the German word Brezel
- Poltergeist – a noisy usually mischievous ghost held to be responsible for unexplained noises
- Pumpernickel
- Putsch – revolution; a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government
- Realpolitik – politics based on practical and material factors rather than on theoretical or ethical objectives
- Rucksack – backpack
- Sauerkraut – fermented cabbage
- Schadenfreude – enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others
- Schnapps - an alcoholic drink. In German spelled "Schnaps"
- Schnitzel – veal cutlet without bones
- Streusel
- Strudel
- Über – lit. "over", as in above, ultra, very; Übermensch – superman/superhuman
- Übermensch
- Umlaut – the diacritic over the vowels "ä", "ö" and "ü", or more generally the phenomenon of vowel shifts such as the one in German that is represented by this diacritic
- Wanderlust – strong longing for or impulse toward wandering
- Wiener
- Wirtschaftswunder – the upturn experienced in the West German and Austrian economies after the Second World War
- Wunderkind – child prodigy
- Zeitgeist – "spirit of the times"
See also
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