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GERMAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

selten.

rare, infrequent, uncommon, scarce

6 characters2 syllables approx.Deutsch language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈzɛltən/[ˈzɛltən][ˈzɛltn̩]

  1. rare, infrequent, uncommon, scarce

    not-comparable

  2. unusual, curious

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle High German sëlten, sëlden, from Old High German sëltan, from Proto-West Germanic *seldanā. Cognate with English seldom, Saterland Frisian säilden (“seldom”), West Frisian selden, komselden (“rare, seldom”), Dutch zelden, Danish sjælden, Norwegian sjelden, Swedish sällan, Faroese sjáldan, Icelandic sjaldan.

adv/ˈzɛltən/[ˈzɛltən][ˈzɛltn̩]

  1. seldom; rarely

    Er ist selten unfreundlich.

  2. unusually; extremely

    informal
    Der Typ war ja selten unfreundlich!
    Das ist selten dämlich.
Where this word comes from

From Middle High German sëlten, sëlden, from Old High German sëltan, from Proto-West Germanic *seldanā. Cognate with English seldom, Saterland Frisian säilden (“seldom”), West Frisian selden, komselden (“rare, seldom”), Dutch zelden, Danish sjælden, Norwegian sjelden, Swedish sällan, Faroese sjáldan, Icelandic sjaldan.

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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.