stämning

Stämning is a Swedish noun with several related meanings. In everyday language, it most often refers to the emotional tone or atmosphere of a person, place, or event. Descriptions such as en lugn stämning i rummet or en festlig stämning illustrate how stämning conveys how things feel, not only what people say or do. The term can also describe the mood of a group or of a time period.

In music, stämning denotes tuning or intonation. Att stämma ett instrument means to adjust its pitch so that it sounds correct in a given key. The noun can also be used to discuss the tonal quality or character that a performance or instrument produces.

In legal language, stämning refers to a summons or civil complaint issued to initiate a lawsuit. A person or organization may receive a stämning from a court, which starts the legal process and establishes a deadline to respond.

Usage notes: stämning often implies a collective or environmental quality rather than a single person’s mood, distinguishing it from humör, which denotes an individual mood. The various senses share the underlying idea of alignment or setting, whether it concerns emotions, pitch, or formal action. Related terms include stämma (to tune or to correspond) and bolagsstämma, the general meeting of a company.