über

Über is a German preposition meaning over, above, across, or beyond. It expresses spatial relations (where something is) or figurative superiority. When indicating position, über takes the dative: Das Bild hängt über dem Sofa (the picture hangs above the sofa). When indicating direction or motion, it takes the accusative: Wir gehen über die Brücke (we go over the bridge).

As a prefix, über- conveys excess, superiority, or transcendence. It appears in verbs such as überleben (to survive), übertreiben (to exaggerate), and überholen (to overtake), and in adjectives like überragend (outstanding). In English, the prefix is often rendered as “uber-” and can appear in compounds such as uber-cool or uber-rich, though the hyphenation varies.

Orthography and usage: The ü in über is an umlaut, a diacritic that marks a distinct vowel sound in German. In proper typography, über is written with two dots above the u. In English texts or brand names, the umlaut is frequently omitted, yielding “uber.” The ride-hailing company Uber uses this ASCII form as its brand, though the word ultimately derives from the German über.