rufen.
to call out, to shout, to cry (of a person or animal)
Meaning & usage
to call out, to shout, to cry (of a person or animal)
um Hilfe rufen
to call for, to request the presence of
Das Küken ruft nach seiner Mutter.
to call, to request the presence of
einen Krankenwagen rufen
die Polizei rufen
to call, to shout (an order, a statement, someone's name)
Ich habe nur gehört, wie jemand meinen Namen gerufen hat.
to call, to beckon, to be waiting
Ich muss los, die Arbeit ruft.
to call (use a certain name for someone)
to ask, to call for
jemandem zu antworten rufen
Where this word comes from
From Middle High German ruofen, from Old High German ruofan, hruofan, from Proto-West Germanic *hrōpan, from Proto-Germanic *hrōpaną. Cognate with Dutch roepen, English roop, which see. Alongside there existed a weak Middle High German ruofen, from Old High German (h)ruofen. Weak conjugation is attestable until the 19th century. It indirectly lingers in the umlautless present forms, as against obsolete du rüfst, er rüft. (Lack of umlaut on rounded diphthong before labial is regular in Upper German, but it has only established itself here, not in laufen and saufen.)
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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.