zerkleinertem

Zerkleinen, with the participle zerkleinert, is a German verb meaning to reduce something to smaller pieces by crushing, grinding, shredding or cutting. The form zerkleinert is the past participle and zerkleinertem is the dative singular adjective form derived from zerkleinern. When used as an attributive adjective, zerkleinert describes a noun that has undergone such processing, and it declines like a normal adjective.

Zerkleinern is a productive term in technical and everyday language. The resulting material or state is commonly described as zerkleinert or in phrases such as zerkleinertes Holz (crushed wood), zerkleinertes Metall (crushed metal) or zerkleinertes Material (crushed material). The conceptual noun for the process is Zerkleinerung, which denotes the act or result of reducing size, often through milling, grinding, shredding or pulverizing.

Grammatically, zerkleinertem appears in contexts without a determiner or with prepositions that require the dative case, for example in zerkleinertem Zustand (in a crushed state) or aus zerkleinertem Material (from crushed material). With a definite article, the corresponding form would be dem zerkleinerten Zustand or dem zerkleinerten Material, depending on gender and noun.

In practice, zerkleinert and its inflected forms are common in engineering, mining, recycling, agriculture and food processing, where controlling particle size is important for handling, mixing, filtration or ignition properties. Related terms include zerkleinern (to crush), Zerkleinerung (crushing/grinding process), and synonyms such as mahlen, zerstoßen or zerkleinert fein, depending on the method and degree of size reduction.

See also: Zerkleinerung, Mahlen, Zerkleinert Zustand.