"-ien" meaning in German

See -ien in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Suffix

IPA: /i̯ən/, [i.ən], [jən] Audio: LL-Q188 (deu)-Frank C. Müller--ien.wav
Etymology: From Middle High German -ie, -je, from Latin -ia (feminine singular). Nouns with this Latinate suffix were originally strong (i.e. invariable) feminines, but inflected forms in -ien arose when the distinction between strong and weak feminines collapsed in later Middle High German. These were then treated by analogy with local names like Böhmen, Franken, Sachsen etc. (all originally dative plural of a tribe name). Etymology templates: {{inh|de|gmh|-ie}} Middle High German -ie, {{der|de|la|-ia|pos=feminine singular}} Latin -ia (feminine singular) Head templates: {{head|de|suffix|g=n}} -ien n
  1. Used to form country names; -ia Tags: morpheme, neuter
    Sense id: en--ien-de-suffix-doNg2j2K
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Suffix

IPA: /i̯ən/, [i.ən], [jən] Audio: LL-Q188 (deu)-Frank C. Müller--ien.wav
Etymology: From Latin -ia (neuter plural). In some cases, analysable within German as a regular plural of an earlier form in -ium; e.g. Principium as an obsolete variant of Prinzip. The singular ending was sometimes lost, leaving -ien as a new, irregular plural suffix. In other cases, simply following the Latin i-declension (singular in -e, plural in -ia). Etymology templates: {{der|de|la|-ia|pos=neuter plural}} Latin -ia (neuter plural) Head templates: {{head|de|suffix|g=p}} -ien pl
  1. Used to form the plurals of some neuter nouns of Latin descent whose original plural ends in -ia. Tags: morpheme, plural
    Sense id: en--ien-de-suffix-ZlZOuBH4 Categories (other): Pages with 6 entries, Pages with entries, German entries with incorrect language header, German pluralia tantum Disambiguation of Pages with 6 entries: 24 23 14 39 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 25 25 9 42 Disambiguation of German entries with incorrect language header: 12 88 Disambiguation of German pluralia tantum: 12 88
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2
{
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "gmh",
        "3": "-ie"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle High German -ie",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "-ia",
        "pos": "feminine singular"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin -ia (feminine singular)",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle High German -ie, -je, from Latin -ia (feminine singular). Nouns with this Latinate suffix were originally strong (i.e. invariable) feminines, but inflected forms in -ien arose when the distinction between strong and weak feminines collapsed in later Middle High German. These were then treated by analogy with local names like Böhmen, Franken, Sachsen etc. (all originally dative plural of a tribe name).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "suffix",
        "g": "n"
      },
      "expansion": "-ien n",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "German",
  "lang_code": "de",
  "pos": "suffix",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Tscheche (“Czech person”) + -ien → Tschechien (“Czechia”)",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Jordan (“Jordan”, river) + -ien → Jordanien (“Jordan”, country)",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to form country names; -ia"
      ],
      "id": "en--ien-de-suffix-doNg2j2K",
      "links": [
        [
          "-ia",
          "-ia"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme",
        "neuter"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/i̯ən/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[i.ən]"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[jən]"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q188 (deu)-Frank C. Müller--ien.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d6/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d6/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "-ien"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "-ia",
        "pos": "neuter plural"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin -ia (neuter plural)",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Latin -ia (neuter plural). In some cases, analysable within German as a regular plural of an earlier form in -ium; e.g. Principium as an obsolete variant of Prinzip. The singular ending was sometimes lost, leaving -ien as a new, irregular plural suffix. In other cases, simply following the Latin i-declension (singular in -e, plural in -ia).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "suffix",
        "g": "p"
      },
      "expansion": "-ien pl",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "German",
  "lang_code": "de",
  "pos": "suffix",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "24 23 14 39",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 6 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "25 25 9 42",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "12 88",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "German entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "12 88",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "German pluralia tantum",
          "parents": [
            "Pluralia tantum",
            "Nouns",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Material + -ien → Materialien",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Prinzip + -ien → Prinzipien",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Reptil + -ien → Reptilien",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to form the plurals of some neuter nouns of Latin descent whose original plural ends in -ia."
      ],
      "id": "en--ien-de-suffix-ZlZOuBH4",
      "links": [
        [
          "-ia",
          "-ia#Latin"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme",
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/i̯ən/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[i.ən]"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[jən]"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q188 (deu)-Frank C. Müller--ien.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d6/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d6/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "-ien"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "German entries with incorrect language header",
    "German lemmas",
    "German neuter suffixes",
    "German pluralia tantum",
    "German suffixes",
    "German terms derived from Latin",
    "German terms derived from Middle High German",
    "German terms inherited from Middle High German",
    "Pages with 6 entries",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "gmh",
        "3": "-ie"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle High German -ie",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "-ia",
        "pos": "feminine singular"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin -ia (feminine singular)",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle High German -ie, -je, from Latin -ia (feminine singular). Nouns with this Latinate suffix were originally strong (i.e. invariable) feminines, but inflected forms in -ien arose when the distinction between strong and weak feminines collapsed in later Middle High German. These were then treated by analogy with local names like Böhmen, Franken, Sachsen etc. (all originally dative plural of a tribe name).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "suffix",
        "g": "n"
      },
      "expansion": "-ien n",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "German",
  "lang_code": "de",
  "pos": "suffix",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Tscheche (“Czech person”) + -ien → Tschechien (“Czechia”)",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Jordan (“Jordan”, river) + -ien → Jordanien (“Jordan”, country)",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to form country names; -ia"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "-ia",
          "-ia"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme",
        "neuter"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/i̯ən/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[i.ən]"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[jən]"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q188 (deu)-Frank C. Müller--ien.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d6/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d6/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "-ien"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "German entries with incorrect language header",
    "German lemmas",
    "German pluralia tantum",
    "German suffixes",
    "German terms derived from Latin",
    "Pages with 6 entries",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "-ia",
        "pos": "neuter plural"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin -ia (neuter plural)",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Latin -ia (neuter plural). In some cases, analysable within German as a regular plural of an earlier form in -ium; e.g. Principium as an obsolete variant of Prinzip. The singular ending was sometimes lost, leaving -ien as a new, irregular plural suffix. In other cases, simply following the Latin i-declension (singular in -e, plural in -ia).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "suffix",
        "g": "p"
      },
      "expansion": "-ien pl",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "German",
  "lang_code": "de",
  "pos": "suffix",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Material + -ien → Materialien",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Prinzip + -ien → Prinzipien",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Reptil + -ien → Reptilien",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to form the plurals of some neuter nouns of Latin descent whose original plural ends in -ia."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "-ia",
          "-ia#Latin"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme",
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/i̯ən/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[i.ən]"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[jən]"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q188 (deu)-Frank C. Müller--ien.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d6/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d6/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav/LL-Q188_%28deu%29-Frank_C._M%C3%BCller--ien.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "-ien"
}

Download raw JSONL data for -ien meaning in German (3.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable German dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (51d164f and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.