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GERMAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

zwingen.

to force; to compel; to make (someone do something)

7 characters2 syllables approx.Deutsch language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈtsvɪŋən/[ˈtsʋɪŋən][ˈtsʋɪŋŋ̩]
  1. to force; to compel; to make (someone do something)

    class-3 · strong · transitive
    Ich wurde gezwungen, sie zu heiraten.
    Ich zwinge mich (dazu), nicht mehr an sie zu denken.
  2. to force; to compel; to make (someone do something) to (strictly) necessitate, to force

    class-3 · intransitive · strong · transitive
    Das zwingt zu Produktionsverlagerungen.
Where this word comes from

From Middle High German twingen, from Old High German dwingan, from Proto-Germanic *þwinganą, *þwinhaną. Cognates include Dutch dwingen, Norwegian tvinge, Swedish tvinga, Icelandic þvinga. What may be perceived as a repetition of the consonant shift (from Germanic *þ → Old High German d → Middle High German t → modern German z) is a regular development that affected most words with Old High German dw- and tw- (compare Zwerg, but see also quengeln for a counterexample). Compare English twinge.

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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.