dehnen

From Middle High German denen, dennen, from Old High German thenen, thennen, from Proto-West Germanic *þannjan, from Proto-Germanic *þanjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”). The simple -n- was generalised from certain inflected forms of the West Germanic verb. Cognate with Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌸𐌰𐌽𐌾𐌰𐌽 (ufþanjan), Latin tenēre.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdeːnən/, [ˈdeː.nən], [ˈdeː.nn̩]

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• Hyphenation: deh‧nen
• Homophones: denen (general), Dänen (many speakers, especially northern and eastern regions)

dehnen (weak, third-person singular present dehnt, past tense dehnte, past participle gedehnt, auxiliary haben)

1. to stretch, to make longer or wider by pulling, pushing, extending

   Synonym: strecken

• Strecken and dehnen are often interchangeable, but the latter implies that the stretching goes to the limit. This difference is most evident with limbs: die Beine strecken (“to extend one's legs”) vs. die Beine dehnen (“to stretch one's legs for flexibility”). Accordingly, dehnen is also used in such figurative contexts as das Gesetz dehnen (“to stretch the law”).

• ausdehnen
• dehnbar
• Dehnübung
• Dehnung
• überdehnen

• “dehnen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “dehnen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “dehnen” in Duden online
• “dehnen” in OpenThesaurus.de

dehnen (third-person singular present dehnt, past participle gedehnt, auxiliary verb hunn)

1. Superseded spelling of deenen.