klein

Pronunciation: /klaɪ̯n/

“klein” is a German word. Its 3 meanings in English:

adjective

small, little, wee (in physical size or extent)
small, little, young (not grown up)
insignificant (of little influence or means; of people)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle High German klein, kleine, from Old High German kleini, from Proto-West Germanic *klainī (“shining, fine, splendid, tender”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gleh₁y- (“to cleave, stick”). Cognate with Dutch klein and English clean. Doublet of clean. For a similar semantic development, cf. zierlich (orig. "decorative", today "petite").

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More German words

Kleie
kleiehaltig
Kleienpilzflechte
Kleiko
Klein-Klein
Kleinanleger
Kleinanzeige
kleinasiatisch

About this dictionary

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.