läuten

From Middle High German liuten, from Old High German hlūten, from Proto-West Germanic *hlūdijan (“to make sound”), factitive of *hlūdēn (“to sound”), whence lauten. Equivalent to Laut +‎ -en. Cognate with Dutch luiden. In Middle High German, the distinction between both verbs was increasingly lost, i.e. läuten came to be used intransitively. In Modern German, the two forms were then redistributed on semantic grounds: läuten was restricted to bells while lauten survives only in the figurative sense “to read, have a content”.

• IPA^(key): /lɔʏ̯tən/

• Audio

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• Audio

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• Homophone: Leuten

läuten (weak, third-person singular present läutet, past tense läutete, past participle geläutet, auxiliary haben)

1. (transitive or intransitive) to ring, toll (a bell)

   Synonyms: schlagen, anschlagen, klingeln (mit)

   Der Küster läutet die Glocken.

   The sexton tolls the bells.

2. (intransitive, of a bell) to ring, toll

   Synonyms: klingen, klingeln, schellen, schlagen, tönen

   Die Glocken läuten. ― The bells are ringing.

3. (intransitive) to ring (at a door, front desk, etc.)

   Synonyms: klingeln, schellen

   Hast du schon geläutet?

   Have you rung [the bell] yet?

4. (impersonal, of a doorbell etc.) to ring

   Synonyms: klingeln, schellen

   Geh mal zur Tür, es hat geläutet.

   Go to the door please, the doorbell rang.

• “läuten” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “läuten” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “läuten” in Duden online
• “läuten” in OpenThesaurus.de

läuten

1. prepared, ready, willing