kwijtgeraakt

Kwijtgeraakt is a Dutch past participle that functions both as a verbform and as an adjective. It comes from the separable verb kwijtraken, which means to lose something or to get rid of something. The form kwijtgeraakt is used in perfect constructions and can also describe a state of having lost or disposed of something.

In typical usage, kwijtgeraakt appears in sentences such as: Ik ben mijn sleutels kwijtgeraakt, meaning I have lost my keys. It is common to use zijn as the auxiliary with this verb in the perfect tense: ik ben kwijtgeraakt. The phrase can also express getting rid of something: We zijn van die rommel kwijtgeraakt, meaning we got rid of that junk.

As an adjective, kwijtgeraakt can describe a noun that has been lost or disposed of. For example, een kwijtgeraakte sleutel would be a key that has been lost. The word is widely understood in both the Netherlands and Flanders and is considered standard Dutch, though in some contexts speakers may prefer simpler constructions such as kwijt zijn or kwijt raken.

Etymologically, kwijt is an older Dutch noun meaning lost or gone, and kwijtraken combines this stem with raak- to form the verb. The participle kwijtgeraakt preserves that sense of having moved from possession to loss or irretrievable removal, depending on the context.

Related terms include kwijt raken (to lose or to get rid of), kwijt zijn (to be lost or to be without), and kwijtgeraakt als adjectief (as an adjective describing a lost item). The expression is common in everyday Dutch and does not belong to a single regional variant.