gehörenden

gehörenden is not a standalone lexical item in German but the inflected form of the adjective gehörend, meaning belonging or pertaining. In German, adjectives that modify plural nouns after a definite determiner take the ending -en. Therefore, some common usages are die gehörenden Dinge, den gehörenden Personen, or den gehörenden Unterlagen, meaning “the belonging things,” “the persons who belong (to someone),” or “the documents that belong to someone.” The sense conveyed is that the noun belongs to or is relevant to a particular person or context.

The form derives from the verb gehören (to belong) and the present participle/attributive adjective gehörend. In formal or legal writing, gehörend can be used to specify possession, ownership, jurisdiction, or membership, much like other adjectives that denote relation or belonging. In everyday speech, speakers often rephrase with a relative clause or a possessive construction (for example, die Unterlagen, die mir gehören).

Be careful not to confuse this lowercase attributive form with other, related words that look similar. Gehörende (with capital H) or Hörende are separate nouns or terms in German: Gehörende can denote people who hear in some contexts, and Hörende (also capitalized) is used for hearers. These are distinct from the adjectival form gehörenden and from the verb-based senses discussed here.

In sum, gehörenden is the plural, attributive form of gehörend used to indicate belonging or belonging-to in noun phrases, most common in formal or written contexts.