adjectiveother

gefroren

frozen

Sehr kalt und hart, weil etwas zu Eis geworden ist.

Definition & meaning

Gefroren means frozen: turned to ice or made solid by cold. It can also describe something that has been chilled or stored in a frozen state.

It is also used figuratively for someone or something that has become stiff or motionless, as if unable to move.

Das Wasser ist gefroren. — The water is frozen.
Sie stand wie gefroren da. — She stood there as if frozen.

Grammar & Word origin

Gefroren is the past participle of the German verb gefrieren , meaning “to freeze” or “to become frozen.” Its principal forms are gefrieren – gefror [?](vocabuo://word/gefror] – ist gefroren .

It is commonly used with sein to describe a resulting state: Der See ist gefroren (“The lake is frozen”). It can also function as an adjective and take endings, as in gefrorenes Wasser (“frozen water”).

The word is formed with the participle prefix ge- and the stem of frieren , “to be cold” or “to freeze.”

Synonyms & antonyms

Synonyms

tiefgefroren — deep-frozen; emphasizes that something has been frozen thoroughly, often for storage.
vereist — iced over or covered with ice; focuses on a layer of ice rather than the whole object being frozen.
erstarrt — hardened or stiffened; can describe substances or people, and is often more figurative.

Antonyms

aufgetaut — thawed; the most direct opposite when something frozen has returned to a softer or liquid state.
flüssig — liquid; describes the state of a substance, rather than the process of thawing.
warm — warm; an opposite when gefroren describes something’s temperature, but not necessarily its physical state.