Gelöschten

Gelöschten is the inflected plural attributive form of the German past participle gelösch(t)en, derived from löschen, meaning to delete or erase. It is used to describe objects that have been deleted or erased, typically in digital or archival contexts, and appears mainly in noun phrases with a definite or determiner-bearing article.

In practice, gelöschten functions as an adjective in front of a plural noun. After definite articles or other determiners in the plural, the ending -en is required: die gelöschten Dateien, den gelöschten Beiträgen. With possessive determiners, the same -en ending is used: meine gelöschten Dateien. In the absence of a determiner (strong declension), the form would be gelöschte Dateien: gelöschte Dateien.

The term is common in computing, data management, moderation, and version control, where it marks items that have been removed or purged from a system. It is distinct from the participle gelöst or the past tense form gelöscht, which can appear in other syntactic roles; gelöschten specifically reflects the attributive plural form of the deleted state.

Etymology: gelöschten is built from löschen with the prefix ge- and the past participle ending -t, combined with the plural adjective ending -en. This pattern follows standard German adjective declension rules for plural nouns with definite or determiner-based contexts.

See also: gelöscht, löschen.