Gedankenexperiment

See also: gedankenexperiment and gedanken experiment

German

Etymology

From Gedanke +‎ -n- +‎ Experiment. Coined by Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted circa 1812.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡəˈdaŋkŋ̍ˌɛksˈpeːʁiːmɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Gedankenexperiment n (strong, genitive Gedankenexperimentes or Gedankenexperiments, plural Gedankenexperimente)

1. (physics, epistemology) gedankenexperiment, a thought experiment

Declension

Declension of Gedankenexperiment [neuter, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	Gedankenexperiment	die	Gedankenexperimente
genitive	eines	des	Gedankenexperimentes, Gedankenexperiments	der	Gedankenexperimente
dative	einem	dem	Gedankenexperiment, Gedankenexperimente1	den	Gedankenexperimenten
accusative	ein	das	Gedankenexperiment	die	Gedankenexperimente

¹Now rare, see notes.

Descendants

• → English: thought experiment (calque)

Further reading

• “Gedankenexperiment” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Gedankenexperiment” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Gedankenexperiment” in Duden online