gebundenen

Gebundenen is a declined form of the German adjective and participle gebunden, derived from the verb binden. It carries senses related to being bound, tied, fixed, or constrained, and is used in a range of contexts in which something is described as linked or restricted.

In grammar, gebunden forms decline according to the gender, number, and case of the noun they modify. The specific ending -en appears in several common contexts. For example, den gebundenen Vertrag illustrates the accusative masculine singular, and mit den gebundenen Händen shows the dative plural. Another frequent usage is im gebundenen Zustand, where gebundenen accompanies a masculine noun in the dative. After a definite article, the adjective ending -en is a typical weak declension form.

As a noun, Gebundene (capitalized) can occasionally function to denote a group of people who are bound or constrained, though this usage is rare and highly context-dependent. In practice, it is more common to encounter gebunden primarily as an attributive or predicative adjective rather than as a standalone noun.

In linguistics, gebundenen may appear in the phrase gebundene Morpheme, referring to bound morphemes—affixes that cannot stand alone—contrasted with freie Morpheme, which can function independently. This distinction is foundational in morphological analysis and is standard across German-language linguistic literature.

In publishing, the related term gebundene Ausgabe refers to a hardcover edition, with gebundene functioning as an adjective describing the binding of the book. The form gebundenen itself is thus primarily a grammatical variant rather than a standalone lexeme.