45 German words you already know: -ity → -ität
German turns English -ity into -ität: university is Universität, quality is Qualität, reality is Realität. Every one of them is feminine, so it is always die — die Universität — and the plural only adds -en: die Universitäten.
-ity-ität
university → Universität · quality → Qualität · reality → Realität
Always die: every noun in -ität is feminine. The stress is on the ending: Uni-ver-si-TÄT.
Read German with every word explained
The 44 that match exactly, most common first
| German | English | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Realität | reality | reality |
| Identität | identity | sameness, identicalness, identity |
| Universität | university | university |
| Aktivität | activity | activity |
| Priorität | priority | priority |
| Qualität | quality | quality |
| Autorität | authority | authority |
| Spezialität | speciality | speciality |
| Elektrizität | electricity | electricity |
| Integrität | integrity | integrity |
| Immunität | immunity | immunity |
| Formalität | formality | formality |
| Sexualität | sexuality | sexuality |
| Stabilität | stability | stability |
| Kreativität | creativity | creativity |
| Normalität | normality | normality, normalcy |
| Brutalität | brutality | brutality |
| Solidarität | solidarity | solidarity |
| Intensität | intensity | intensity |
| Radioaktivität | radioactivity | radioactivity |
| Homosexualität | homosexuality | homosexuality |
| Kapazität | capacity | capacity |
| Anonymität | anonymity | anonymity |
| Sentimentalität | sentimentality | sentimentality |
| Nationalität | nationality | nationality |
| Komplexität | complexity | complexity |
| Instabilität | instability | instability |
| Individualität | individuality | individuality |
| Produktivität | productivity | productivity |
| Singularität | singularity | singularity |
| Objektivität | objectivity | objectivity, impartiality |
| Popularität | popularity | popularity |
| Mentalität | mentality | mentality, mindset |
| Extremität | extremity | extremity, limb |
| Flexibilität | flexibility | flexibility |
| Spiritualität | spirituality | spirituality |
| Authentizität | authenticity | authenticity |
| Rarität | rarity | curiosity, rarity |
| Originalität | originality | originality |
| Neutralität | neutrality | neutrality |
| Kontinuität | continuity | continuity |
| Spontaneität | spontaneity | spontaneity |
| Polarität | polarity | polarity |
| Quantität | quantity | quantity |
1 more, through another meaning
The trick works, but the English word is not the first thing these mean.
| German | English | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Kriminalität | criminality | crime |
The ones that bite
They look like the trick and mean something else.
- Sensibilität looks like sensibility — it means sensitivity: being easily hurt, or alert to others' feelings
- Antiquität looks like antiquity — it means an antique, a piece of old furniture or art; antiquity is die Antike
Where it comes from
German -ität, English -ity and French -ité all continue the Latin -itas, -itatem. Middle High German had two versions of the ending, -itēt from French and -itāt straight from Latin, and today's -ität is a compromise between them. English moved the stress towards the front of the word (uniVERsity); German kept it on the ending, where Latin had it (universiTAtem).
More tricks
Read German with every word explained
Sources
- Wiktionary: -ität (German), a compromise between Middle High German -itēt (from French) and -itāt (from Latin -itās)
- Wiktionary: -ity (English), from Old French -ité, from Latin -itātem
- Wiktionary: Universität, from Latin ūniversitās
- Wiktionary, via the kaikki.org machine-readable extract (word meanings) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
- FrequencyWords by Hermit Dave, from OpenSubtitles 2018 (word frequencies) (MIT)
- WordNet 3.1, Princeton University (which English words exist) (WordNet License)
Word meanings from Wiktionary, via kaikki.org, under CC BY-SA 3.0; word frequencies from FrequencyWords (MIT). This list is shared under the same CC BY-SA 3.0 licence. Built 2026-10-12.