die Initiative
Meaning in English: initiative
Spelled the same as in English — one of the German words you already know.
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Test my vocabularyExample
Sie hat selbst die Initiative ergriffen.
She took the initiative herself.
Der, die or das?
Initiative is feminine: die Initiative. That fits the pattern — nouns ending in -e are die in 170 of 193 cases in the list. How to tell the gender from the ending.
Forms of Initiative in the top 5,000
These forms of Initiative are in the top 5,000 as well — plural and case forms are counted separately:
In unserem Viertel gibt es viele Initiativen.
There are many initiatives in our neighbourhood.
How common is Initiative?
Initiative is number 946 of the 5,000 most common German words. In the texts the list is counted from it appears 94 times per million words — about once every 11,000 words.
Know every word down to this one and you recognise about 64% of the words in an ordinary German text. B2 means an upper-intermediate word, common in news and work.
Next to it in the frequency list
- 942verwendenuse
- 943das Mädchengirl
- 944laufenrun, walk
- 945passierthappened; happens
- 946die Initiativeinitiative
- 947schützenprotect
- 948bestimmtecertain, particular
- 949die Erfahrungexperience
- 950die Verwaltungadministration
In these word lists
- The 1,000 most common German words#946
- The 5,000 most common German words#946
- The most common German nouns#324
- German B2 vocabulary#107
- The most common German feminine nouns (die)#111
Translations, levels and examples were written with AI help and are awaiting review by a native speaker — how the list was made.