kaum.
barely, hardly (qualifying verbs or adjectives)
Meaning & usage
barely, hardly (qualifying verbs or adjectives)
Ich kann das kaum lesen.
Die Handschrift ist kaum lesbar.
barely any, almost no (qualifying amounts)
Wir haben kaum noch Geld.
difficult, nearly impossible
Das ist kaum zu glauben.
as soon as, immediately after
Kaum bin ich mit einer Sache fertig, da habe schon ich das nächste Problem am Hals.
Where this word comes from
From Middle High German kūme, from Old High German kūmo, from Proto-Germanic *kūmaz, *kūmijaz (“weak, pitiful, frail”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH- (“to call, cry”). Cognate with English comely and archaic Dutch kuim (“barely”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.