sichten

See also: Sichten

German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈzɪçtn̩/, /ˈzɪçtən/

Etymology 1

From Sicht (view).

Verb

sichten (weak, third-person singular present sichtet, past tense sichtete, past participle gesichtet, auxiliary haben)

  1. to sight
Conjugation

Etymology 2

From Low German. Cognate with English sift.

Verb

sichten (weak, third-person singular present sichtet, past tense sichtete, past participle gesichtet, auxiliary haben)

  1. to sift, sort, winnow
  2. to classify, sort over
Usage notes
  • Most speakers believe this word to be the same as etymology 1 and hardly recognize any difference between the two meanings at all. Modern day usage is mostly limited to sifting through data or documents, where the notion of selecting is displaced by the notion of mere viewing or examining. Most modern usage examples are seen as synonymous to durchsehen (review), which too promotes the notion of viewing rather than selecting.
Conjugation
Derived terms

Further reading

  • sichten” in Duden online
  • sichten” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache