Wörter

Wörter is the plural of Wort and refers to the individual linguistic units that can carry meaning or grammatical function in German. A Wort can be a single morpheme or a compound of several morphemes; in practice, words are the basic building blocks of sentences and texts.

Wörter can be categorized by function and content. Content words include Nomen (nouns), Verben (verbs), Adjektive (adjectives), and Adverbien (adverbs). Function words include Pronomen, Präpositionen, Konjunktionen, Artikel, and certain particles. In German, many words are inflected: nouns show gender, number, and case; adjectives and determiners agree with nouns; verbs reflect tense, mood, person, and number.

Word formation and orthography: German heavily uses derivation and compounding, often forming long compounds such as Haustürschloss or Schreibmaschine. Spelling follows standard orthography; nouns are capitalized. The form of a word may differ from its lemma; dictionaries list lemmas and provide inflected forms.

Usage and lexicon: In linguistics and lexicography, Wörter are analyzed for semantics, pragmatics, and frequency in corpora. Word formation and the inclusion of loanwords shape a language's lexicon and reflect historical contact and cultural development. Dictionaries serve as references for spelling, meaning, and usage.

Etymology: The term Wort, and its plural Wörter, originate from Old High German wort and are cognate with English word and Dutch woord.