Wehrmacht

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from German Wehrmacht.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛə(ɹ)ˌmɑːxt/, /ˈvɛə(ɹ)ˌmɑːkt/

Proper noun

Wehrmacht

1. (historical, Nazism) The German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.

   Coordinate term: Waffen-SS

   • 1996, Robert Doughty, World War II: Total Warfare Around the Globe, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 106:

     In the end the Allies battered the Wehrmacht back to the Reich and ended whatever chance the Germans had of escaping their fate.

Translations

German armed forces from 1935 to 1945

• Danish: værnemagt
• German: Wehrmacht (de) f
• Marathi: वेह्रमाख्ट pl (vehramākhṭa)
• Persian: ورماخت (vermâxt)
• Russian: Ве́рмахт m (Vérmaxt)
• Serbo-Croatian: Vermaht m

German

Etymology

From wehren + Macht.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈveːʁmaxt/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

Wehrmacht f (genitive Wehrmacht, plural Wehrmächte)

1. (archaic) armed forces

Usage notes

• In modern usage, Wehrmacht refers specifically to the Nazi-era military. It is no longer used for armed forces generally.

Declension

Declension of Wehrmacht [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Wehrmacht	die	Wehrmächte
genitive	einer	der	Wehrmacht	der	Wehrmächte
dative	einer	der	Wehrmacht	den	Wehrmächten
accusative	eine	die	Wehrmacht	die	Wehrmächte

Related terms

• Streitkraft
• Streitmacht

Proper noun

Wehrmacht f (proper noun, genitive Wehrmacht)

1. (historical, Nazism) Wehrmacht (German armed forces from 1935 to 1945)

Declension

Declension of Wehrmacht [sg-only, feminine]

	singular
	indef.	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Wehrmacht
genitive	einer	der	Wehrmacht
dative	einer	der	Wehrmacht
accusative	eine	die	Wehrmacht

Related terms

• Reichswehr
• Bundeswehr

Further reading

• “Wehrmacht” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Wehrmacht” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Wehrmacht” in Duden online
• Wehrmacht on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de