"wenig" meaning in German

See wenig in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈveːnɪç/ (note: standard, northern and central Germany), /ˈveːnɪk/ [Austria, Southern-Germany, Switzerland, standard, southern-Germany] Audio: De-wenig.ogg , De-wenig2.ogg [Germany, Berlin], De-wenig3.ogg [Germany, Berlin], De-at-wenig.ogg [Austria] Forms: weniger [masculine, nominative, singular, strong], weniger [comparative], minder [comparative], am wenigsten [superlative], am mindesten [superlative]
Etymology: From Middle High German weinec, wēnec (“marginal”), from Old High German *weinag, wēnag (“miserable”), from Proto-Germanic *wainagaz. The form with -ei- is original; that with -ē- arose through conflation with the morphologically simpler Old High German wē (“woe”), akin to English woe. The diphthong -ei- later on regularly became -ē- in several dialects, which further strengthened the monophthongal form wenig. Cognate with Dutch weinig, Low German weinig, Hunsrik wenich, Yiddish ווייניק (veynik). The comparative minder comes from Middle High German minder, minre, minner; the Middle High German superlative is minnest, minst. Both are related to min. Etymology templates: {{der|de|gmh|weinec}} Middle High German weinec, {{der|de|goh||*weinag}} Old High German *weinag, {{der|de|gem-pro|*wainagaz}} Proto-Germanic *wainagaz, {{cog|en|woe}} English woe, {{cog|nl|weinig}} Dutch weinig, {{cog|nds|weinig}} Low German weinig, {{cog|hrx|wenich}} Hunsrik wenich, {{cog|yi|ווייניק}} Yiddish ווייניק (veynik), {{der|de|gmh|minder}} Middle High German minder, {{cog|gmh|-}} Middle High German Head templates: {{de-adj|comp:+:minder}} wenig (strong nominative masculine singular weniger, comparative weniger or minder, superlative am wenigsten or am mindesten)
  1. little, few (a small amount, a small number) Related terms: weinen, weh
    Sense id: en-wenig-de-adj-poE5zMYB Categories (other): German entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "gmh",
        "3": "weinec"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle High German weinec",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "goh",
        "3": "",
        "4": "*weinag"
      },
      "expansion": "Old High German *weinag",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*wainagaz"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *wainagaz",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "woe"
      },
      "expansion": "English woe",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "nl",
        "2": "weinig"
      },
      "expansion": "Dutch weinig",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "nds",
        "2": "weinig"
      },
      "expansion": "Low German weinig",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "hrx",
        "2": "wenich"
      },
      "expansion": "Hunsrik wenich",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "yi",
        "2": "ווייניק"
      },
      "expansion": "Yiddish ווייניק (veynik)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "gmh",
        "3": "minder"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle High German minder",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gmh",
        "2": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle High German",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle High German weinec, wēnec (“marginal”), from Old High German *weinag, wēnag (“miserable”), from Proto-Germanic *wainagaz. The form with -ei- is original; that with -ē- arose through conflation with the morphologically simpler Old High German wē (“woe”), akin to English woe. The diphthong -ei- later on regularly became -ē- in several dialects, which further strengthened the monophthongal form wenig. Cognate with Dutch weinig, Low German weinig, Hunsrik wenich, Yiddish ווייניק (veynik).\nThe comparative minder comes from Middle High German minder, minre, minner; the Middle High German superlative is minnest, minst. Both are related to min.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "weniger",
      "tags": [
        "masculine",
        "nominative",
        "singular",
        "strong"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "weniger",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "minder",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "am wenigsten",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "am mindesten",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "comp:+:minder"
      },
      "expansion": "wenig (strong nominative masculine singular weniger, comparative weniger or minder, superlative am wenigsten or am mindesten)",
      "name": "de-adj"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenations": [
    {
      "parts": [
        "we",
        "nig"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "lang": "German",
  "lang_code": "de",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "German entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "little, few (a small amount, a small number)"
      ],
      "id": "en-wenig-de-adj-poE5zMYB",
      "links": [
        [
          "little",
          "little"
        ],
        [
          "few",
          "few"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "weinen"
        },
        {
          "word": "weh"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈveːnɪç/",
      "note": "standard, northern and central Germany"
    },
    {
      "audio": "De-wenig.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/50/De-wenig.ogg/De-wenig.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/De-wenig.ogg"
    },
    {
      "audio": "De-wenig2.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/ff/De-wenig2.ogg/De-wenig2.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/De-wenig2.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Germany",
        "Berlin"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈveːnɪk/",
      "tags": [
        "Austria",
        "Southern-Germany",
        "Switzerland",
        "standard",
        "southern-Germany"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "De-wenig3.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c2/De-wenig3.ogg/De-wenig3.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/De-wenig3.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Germany",
        "Berlin"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "De-at-wenig.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/de/De-at-wenig.ogg/De-at-wenig.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/De-at-wenig.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Austria"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "wenig"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "gmh",
        "3": "weinec"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle High German weinec",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "goh",
        "3": "",
        "4": "*weinag"
      },
      "expansion": "Old High German *weinag",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*wainagaz"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *wainagaz",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "woe"
      },
      "expansion": "English woe",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "nl",
        "2": "weinig"
      },
      "expansion": "Dutch weinig",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "nds",
        "2": "weinig"
      },
      "expansion": "Low German weinig",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "hrx",
        "2": "wenich"
      },
      "expansion": "Hunsrik wenich",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "yi",
        "2": "ווייניק"
      },
      "expansion": "Yiddish ווייניק (veynik)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "gmh",
        "3": "minder"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle High German minder",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gmh",
        "2": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle High German",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle High German weinec, wēnec (“marginal”), from Old High German *weinag, wēnag (“miserable”), from Proto-Germanic *wainagaz. The form with -ei- is original; that with -ē- arose through conflation with the morphologically simpler Old High German wē (“woe”), akin to English woe. The diphthong -ei- later on regularly became -ē- in several dialects, which further strengthened the monophthongal form wenig. Cognate with Dutch weinig, Low German weinig, Hunsrik wenich, Yiddish ווייניק (veynik).\nThe comparative minder comes from Middle High German minder, minre, minner; the Middle High German superlative is minnest, minst. Both are related to min.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "weniger",
      "tags": [
        "masculine",
        "nominative",
        "singular",
        "strong"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "weniger",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "minder",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "am wenigsten",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "am mindesten",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "comp:+:minder"
      },
      "expansion": "wenig (strong nominative masculine singular weniger, comparative weniger or minder, superlative am wenigsten or am mindesten)",
      "name": "de-adj"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenations": [
    {
      "parts": [
        "we",
        "nig"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "lang": "German",
  "lang_code": "de",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "weinen"
    },
    {
      "word": "weh"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "German adjectives",
        "German entries with incorrect language header",
        "German lemmas",
        "German terms derived from Middle High German",
        "German terms derived from Old High German",
        "German terms derived from Proto-Germanic",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "little, few (a small amount, a small number)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "little",
          "little"
        ],
        [
          "few",
          "few"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈveːnɪç/",
      "note": "standard, northern and central Germany"
    },
    {
      "audio": "De-wenig.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/50/De-wenig.ogg/De-wenig.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/De-wenig.ogg"
    },
    {
      "audio": "De-wenig2.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/ff/De-wenig2.ogg/De-wenig2.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/De-wenig2.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Germany",
        "Berlin"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈveːnɪk/",
      "tags": [
        "Austria",
        "Southern-Germany",
        "Switzerland",
        "standard",
        "southern-Germany"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "De-wenig3.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c2/De-wenig3.ogg/De-wenig3.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/De-wenig3.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Germany",
        "Berlin"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "De-at-wenig.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/de/De-at-wenig.ogg/De-at-wenig.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/De-at-wenig.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Austria"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "wenig"
}

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

{
  "called_from": "query_wikidata_json",
  "msg": "WIKIDATA QUERY failed",
  "path": [
    "wenig",
    "Template:cog",
    "#invoke",
    "#invoke",
    "Lua:Module:etymology/templates:cognate()"
  ],
  "section": "German",
  "subsection": "",
  "title": "wenig",
  "trace": "<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html lang=\"en\">\n<meta charset=\"utf-8\">\n<title>Wikimedia Error</title>\n<style>\n* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }\nbody { background: #fff; font: 15px/1.6 sans-serif; color: #333; }\n.content { margin: 7% auto 0; padding: 2em 1em 1em; max-width: 640px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex-wrap: wrap; }\n.footer { clear: both; margin-top: 14%; border-top: 1px solid #e5e5e5; background: #f9f9f9; padding: 2em 0; font-size: 0.8em; text-align: center; }\nimg { margin: 0 2em 2em 0; }\na img { border: 0; }\nh1 { margin-top: 1em; font-size: 1.2em; }\n.content-text { flex: 1; }\np { margin: 0.7em 0 1em 0; }\na { color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none; }\na:hover { text-decoration: underline; }\ncode { font-family: sans-serif; }\nsummary { font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; }\ndetails[open] { background: #970302; color: #dfdedd; }\n.text-muted { color: #777; }\n@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {\n  a { color: #9e9eff; }\n  body { background: transparent; color: #ddd; }\n  .footer { border-top: 1px solid #444; background: #060606; }\n  #logo { filter: invert(1) hue-rotate(180deg); }\n  .text-muted { color: #888; }\n}\n</style>\n<meta name=\"color-scheme\" content=\"light dark\">\n<div class=\"content\" role=\"main\">\n<a href=\"https://www.wikimedia.org\"><img id=\"logo\" src=\"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo.png\" srcset=\"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo-2x.png 2x\" alt=\"Wikimedia\" width=\"135\" height=\"101\">\n</a>\n<div class=\"content-text\">\n<h1>Error</h1>\n\n<p>Your bot is making too many requests. Please reduce your request rate or contact bot-traffic@wikimedia.org (f263c81)</p>\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"footer\"><p>If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below.</p><p class=\"text-muted\"><code>Request served via cp3073 cp3073, Varnish XID 418780402<br>Upstream caches: cp3073 int<br>Error: 429, Your bot is making too many requests. Please reduce your request rate or contact bot-traffic@wikimedia.org (f263c81) at Fri, 18 Sep 2026 02:53:54 GMT<br><details><summary>Sensitive client information</summary>IP address: 91.207.79.37</details></code></p>\n</div>\n</html>\n"
}

{
  "called_from": "query_wikidata_json",
  "msg": "WIKIDATA QUERY failed",
  "path": [
    "wenig",
    "Template:cog",
    "#invoke",
    "#invoke",
    "Lua:Module:etymology/templates:cognate()"
  ],
  "section": "German",
  "subsection": "",
  "title": "wenig",
  "trace": "<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html lang=\"en\">\n<meta charset=\"utf-8\">\n<title>Wikimedia Error</title>\n<style>\n* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }\nbody { background: #fff; font: 15px/1.6 sans-serif; color: #333; }\n.content { margin: 7% auto 0; padding: 2em 1em 1em; max-width: 640px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex-wrap: wrap; }\n.footer { clear: both; margin-top: 14%; border-top: 1px solid #e5e5e5; background: #f9f9f9; padding: 2em 0; font-size: 0.8em; text-align: center; }\nimg { margin: 0 2em 2em 0; }\na img { border: 0; }\nh1 { margin-top: 1em; font-size: 1.2em; }\n.content-text { flex: 1; }\np { margin: 0.7em 0 1em 0; }\na { color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none; }\na:hover { text-decoration: underline; }\ncode { font-family: sans-serif; }\nsummary { font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; }\ndetails[open] { background: #970302; color: #dfdedd; }\n.text-muted { color: #777; }\n@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {\n  a { color: #9e9eff; }\n  body { background: transparent; color: #ddd; }\n  .footer { border-top: 1px solid #444; background: #060606; }\n  #logo { filter: invert(1) hue-rotate(180deg); }\n  .text-muted { color: #888; }\n}\n</style>\n<meta name=\"color-scheme\" content=\"light dark\">\n<div class=\"content\" role=\"main\">\n<a href=\"https://www.wikimedia.org\"><img id=\"logo\" src=\"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo.png\" srcset=\"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo-2x.png 2x\" alt=\"Wikimedia\" width=\"135\" height=\"101\">\n</a>\n<div class=\"content-text\">\n<h1>Error</h1>\n\n<p>Your bot is making too many requests. Please reduce your request rate or contact bot-traffic@wikimedia.org (f263c81)</p>\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"footer\"><p>If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below.</p><p class=\"text-muted\"><code>Request served via cp3073 cp3073, Varnish XID 430479387<br>Upstream caches: cp3073 int<br>Error: 429, Your bot is making too many requests. Please reduce your request rate or contact bot-traffic@wikimedia.org (f263c81) at Fri, 18 Sep 2026 02:54:49 GMT<br><details><summary>Sensitive client information</summary>IP address: 91.207.79.37</details></code></p>\n</div>\n</html>\n"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable German dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (d6fca27 and 65e1673). 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.