Changes in society bring new words to describe them. To reflect trends in language, the Duden - the preeminent German dictionary - periodically adds new words to its lexicon. The 29th edition of the Duden is being published today, August 20, and it contains 3.000 new words. 

29th Duden dictionary contains 3.000 new German words

The 29th Duden dictionary has gotten thicker to the tune of 3.000 new words, which when put together paint a pretty vivid picture of the years that have passed since the last edition was published in August 2020. “The Duden is a mirror of its time. These words say something about what has happened in the last three to four years,” editor-in-chief Kathrin Kunkel-Razun told the dpa. 

Containing a total of 151.000 words, the Duden is the best-known dictionary of the Standard High German Language, and has been updated every four or five years since it was first published in 1880 by Konrad Duden. The dictionary’s first volume, Die deutsche Rechtschreibung, is the go-to reference book for German spelling. 

Crisis, war and cooking: The new words added to the German dictionary

According to Kunkel-Razun, the additions to the 29th edition can be broadly boiled down into three areas: “crisis, war and cooking”, and should make for interesting reading for anyone learning German. 

Among the new “crisis” words included are the terms Coronapandemie (coronavirus pandemic), Antigenschnelltest (rapid antigen test), Coronaleugner/-in (COVID denier), Extremwetterereignis (extreme weather event), Flugabwehrsystem (air defence system), Gasmangellage (gas shortage), and Entlastungspaket (relief package). 

Cooking terms added to the dictionary include Fleischersatz (meat substitute), Gemüsekiste (vegetable box), Kontaktgrill (contact grill) and - somewhat amusingly - Tahini and Granola. Other major events in Germany over the past four years are also encapsulated in new additions like Deutschlandticket and Ukrainekrieg (Ukraine war). 

Some words are deleted in each Duden edition 

In addition to adding new words, the Duden editorial team also removes words that have fallen out of usage - although they told the dpa that this task is considerably trickier than that of adding new words. Kunkel-Razun said it is harder to prove that a word is no longer used than the other way around. 

Among the deletions in 2024 are the words Frigidär (refrigerator), UMTS cell phone and Rationaliser (a job in the DDR for an employee who worked on “rationalisation”). Some spelling variants have been removed as well such as Tunfisch (tuna) and Spagetti (spaghetti). 

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