zehntausende

Zehntausende is a German noun phrase meaning tens of thousands. It is used to describe a large, approximate quantity of people or objects, without giving an exact count. The term is formed from Zehn (ten) and Tausend (thousand) and is typically written as Zehntausend in the singular and Zehntausende in the plural when referring to multiple ten-thousand units or to counts in the tens of thousands.

The plural Zehntausende is common in journalism, history, and literature to convey scale. For example, Zehntausende Menschen nahmen an der Demonstration teil, or Die Stadt verzeichnete Zehntausende Besucher in der Saison. The expression emphasizes magnitude rather than precision and is often used when an exact figure is unknown, unnecessary, or impractical to state.

Usage notes: Zehntausende does not specify a fixed numeric value. If a precise number is required, figures or a specific word for the amount should be used (for example, zwanzigtausend for twenty thousand, or 20.000 in numerals). In practice, Zehntausende is most appropriate for rough estimates of crowds, populations, or counts that lie in the general range of tens of thousands.

Compared with other large-number terms, Zehntausende remains relatively common in non-technical prose. It signals a substantial yet non-specific quantity and often serves to convey the scale of a phenomenon in a concise, rhetorical way.