Can You Guess What These Long German Words Mean?

Naturally, this is the plural of Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaft, which is an insurance company providing legal protection. Clearly, this is a valuable word for everyday conversations.

Literally "gate-closing panic", torschlusspanik refers to panic-related to time running out to get things done.

This translates as "grief bacon." It means you've gained some weight as a result of stress eating and it's probably a useful word in modern times.

How this word came to be is anyone's guess, but betäubungsmittelverschreibungsverordnung refers to a regulation that deals with prescribing things like anesthetics or narcotics.

Apparently, this word isn't used very much (surprise!) but it does refer to the laws surrounding cattle and beef labeling.

Sozialversicherungsfachangestelltenauszubildender refers to a trainee assistant social insurance or security broker. The word sounds much more exciting than the job.

Believe it or not, in German you just write out the whole number as one so that, the bigger the number is, the longer the word. This one is 777,777.

This word allegedly refers to the Association for Subordinate Officials of the Main Maintenance Building of the Danube Steam Shipping Electrical Services. It's only alleged because there's no proof such an association ever existed. This might just be an example of a word that "could" exist, even if what it refers to doesn't.

Sometimes a long German word refers to basically an entire sentence full of ideas. This one is just car insurance.

Sometimes you need to show your friends how much you care, and a freundschaftsbezeigungen is a demonstration or token to show that friendship.

How does a little box of matches turn into streichholzschächtelchen? That's either the power of fire or of German compound words.

The term "finger-tip feeling" isn't literal. It refers to an almost intuitive feeling or a kind of empathy with other people.

Basically, a way to refer to seasonal affective disorder, spring fatigue is a kind of weariness and depression that you feel as spring begins.

Fremdschämen is a pretty useful word these days. Think of all the cringe-inducing videos you've seen online and the shame you felt on behalf of those people. That's fremdschämen at work.

This term is fun in an awkward way because who hasn't experienced a time when they were trying to help out and then somehow made everything worse as a result?

While the literal translation of this word is "shade parker," what it means is a wimp. A person who parks in the shade is weak and can't handle the real world. You don't want to be a schattenparker, even though it's usually a good idea to actually park in the shade.

This isn't the most polite thing in the world but apparently, some people just feel like they need to slap other people in the face and then they made a word to express that.

This word is fun to say, even if what it refers to is not super fun. The word derives its meaning from "dirty linen" and means a jumble, hodgepodge or mess.

The literal translation is "dragon fodder" but what it actually refers to is a gift you give to your spouse or partner as a kind of apology. So you screwed up and got them this thing to try to make it better.

It's not too weird to have a single word to refer to being totally naked, even if it's a 5-syllable word that sounds kind of like a kitchen tool.

The publication date of a book is the kind of information you usually gloss over, so maybe that's why it's such a big word in German. It's hard to miss.

Empathy is a pretty commonplace feeling, so maybe it's surprising that the word for it is so hard to wrap your head around.

The fun part of being all alone in German is that the word is so long you always have something big and bulky to keep you company.

You're not technically supposed to take pleasure in someone else's pain, but every so often you see someone who you really don't like take a fall and you can't help but feel good about it.

A doppelgänger usually just means a twin or double of some kind though to be very technical, it should also be a supernatural or evil double. So if you see one, try to avoid it. Unless you actually have a twin.

The term "desk murderer" sounds a little silly at first glance, but it's quite a disturbing concept. It refers to bureaucrats and state employees who sat at a desk and sanctioned the murder of many people.

A killer argument is an argument killer. If you're in a heated debated with someone, you can bust out a totschlagargument and immediately shut the whole conversation down. It doesn't even need to be related to the topic at hand, just something so devastating that the other person has no comeback.

You can almost see the relation between Nasennebenhöhlenentzündung and sinusitis with the beginning of the word "nasal" in there, but then it really takes a left turn.

It's always important to cooperate and work together, so maybe it's good that the Germans have such a complex word for doing just that.

It seems a little ironic that selbstverständlichkeit means something self-evident or an obvious fact when that meaning itself is far from obvious or self-evident.

Outside of Mary Poppins, there's probably not much need to talk about a head district chimney sweep, but if it ever comes up, there's a word for it.

If you describe someone with the word eigenbrötlerisch, you're describing someone who definitely doesn't want a lot of company and spends a lot of time alone, like a recluse.

Feuchtfröhlich is a very unique and unusual term. It does mean merry, happy or jolly, but it's very much related to that feeling being caused by drinking alcohol.

In general, streicheleinheit means to pet or caress, but the literal translation is a unit of petting, so it's somehow supposed to be a measurement of the petting you do. Definitely a thing a cat would pay attention to.

If there's a point for an eierschalensollbruchstellenverursache, it's to help you crack an egg in such a way that the shell doesn't splinter everywhere. Do you need that? Well, that's up to you.