diens

Diens is a noun in Afrikaans that denotes service, the act of serving, or the function performed for others. It can refer to the provision of assistance, goods, or facilities, as in public services, customer service, or professional duties. The related verb is dien, meaning to serve or to render a service. In daily use, phrases such as die diens lewer (to render service) or in diens wees (to be in service or employed) illustrate its application. The term also appears in compounds like dienslewering (service delivery) and publieke diens (public service).

Diens derives from the Dutch dienst and is cognate with the German Dienst and the English word service. It is widely used in official, business, and everyday language in Afrikaans-speaking communities, particularly in South Africa and Namibia. The concept covers both public-sector provision and private-sector customer relations, and it is often discussed in the context of service delivery, customer expectations, and employment.

In addition to its broad sense of service, diens is embedded in many compound terms that describe specific kinds of service activities or sectors, such as service delivery in governance or the service industry in the economy. The word helps distinguish the act or practice of serving from related notions of production or manufacture, which are described with different Afrikaans terms. Around the language, diens functions as a core term for describing how goods, information, or assistance are provided to others.