überlebenden

Überlebende is a German noun meaning a person who has survived a dangerous or life-threatening event. The standard singular is der Überlebende and the plural die Überlebenden. The term is widely used in historical, journalistic, humanitarian, medical, and ecological contexts to refer to people who remain alive after disasters, wars, accidents, epidemics, or genocides. In broader usage, the adjective form überlebend is used to describe something that continues to exist after an event, and the declined form überlebenden appears as an attributive adjective before a plural noun, for example die überlebenden Menschen or die überlebenden Arten. The capitalization is relevant when the word functions as a noun (Überlebende or Überlebenden in various cases) rather than as a descriptive adjective (überlebend/überlebenden).

Etymology and grammar: Derivation comes from the verb überleben (to survive) with the agentive suffix -e, yielding the noun Überlebende. The form überlebenden is a declined form of the adjectival participation or an attributive adjective before a plural noun, used in phrases such as unter den überlebenden or den überlebenden Opfern, depending on grammatical case.

Contexts and usage: In history and journalism, Überlebende identify individuals who outlived a catastrophe. In medicine, long-term survivors are described with terms like Langzeitüberlebende in studies of diseases such as cancer. In ecology, überlebende Arten refer to species that persist after environmental pressure or extinction risks.

See also: Survivors, Disaster and war studies, Refuges and resilience.