VocabauraVOCABAURA

germanic

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Of or pertaining to the ancient Teutons or their languages.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

jermanik

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dʒɚˈmænɪk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Relating to the Germanic peoples (such as Germans, Scandinavians or Anglo-Saxons).

  2. Containing germanium with a valence of 4.

  3. linguistics

    Of or relating to the language of Germans

noun

  1. linguistics

    A branch of the Indo-European family of languages; members that are spoken currently fall into two major groups: Scandinavian and West Germanic

  2. linguistics

    The group of Indo-European languages that developed from (Ur-)Germanic.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Relating to the Germanic peoples (such as Germans, Scandinavians or Anglo-Saxons).

Used this way, germanic is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use germanic

  • “The Germanic sound shifts.”adjective

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “germanic”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Relating / branch

germanic peoplesgermanic origin

Other combinations

germanic philologygermanic bodygermanic lawgermanic racegermanic world

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • germanynounDerived noun

    A republic in central Europe.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • germanic languagenounCompound term

    A branch of the Indo-European family of languages.

  • east germanicnounCompound term

    An extinct branch of the Germanic languages.

  • east germanic languagenounCompound term

    An extinct branch of the Germanic languages.

  • indo-germanicadjectiveCompound term

    Of or relating to the Indo-European language family.

  • north germanicnounCompound term

    The northern family of Germanic languages that are spoken in Scandinavia and Iceland.

  • north germanic languagenounCompound term

    The northern family of Germanic languages that are spoken in Scandinavia and Iceland.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: branch of the Indo-European family of languages

germanic languageRaregermanteutonic

Use This Word

See how this word sounds in a real sentence.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “germanic” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.