wünschenswerte

Wünschenswert is a German adjective meaning desirable or worth wishing for. It is formed with the suffix -wert, which is used to express that something is worthy of being desired. Wünschenswerte is the inflected form used before plural nouns (attributive position), as in wünschenswerte Eigenschaften or wünschenswerte Merkmale. The same stem can take different endings depending on case and determiner, for example wünschenswerte Eigenschaften (nominative plural), den wünschenswerten Eigenschaften (dative plural), or eine wünschenswerte Eigenschaft (singular feminine).

Usage and nuance

Wünschenswert is commonly used in normative statements, guidelines, policy texts, and technical writing to denote features, outcomes, or conditions that are regarded as desirable, but not mandatory. It contrasts with terms like erforderlich (required) or nötig (necessary). In everyday language, synonyms such as erwünscht (desired) or angenehm (pleasant) may be used in more subjective contexts, while wünschenswert conveys a broader, criterion-based desirability.

Etymology and related forms

The word is built from Wunsch (wish) and wert (worthy), following a productive German pattern with -wert suffixes such as sehenswert (worth seeing) and lesenswert (worth reading). Related compounds include gewünscht (desired in sense of asked for) and erwünscht (desired or welcomed in a more personal sense).

See also

Desiderata, the plural of desideratum, provides a cross-linguistic concept for things regarded as desirable; related German terms include wünschenswert, erwünscht, and erforderlich, which help distinguish degrees of desirability and obligation.