Kreis

See also: Kreiß and kreis

German

Alternative forms

• Kraiß, Kreiß, Krayß, Kreyß, Krais, Krays, Kreys (until 18^th century)

Etymology

From Middle High German kreiȥ, from Old High German kreiȥ, from Proto-West Germanic *krait, from Proto-Germanic *kraitaz. Compare the semantic development of the descendants of Proto-Slavic *krajь (eg. Czech kraj, Russian край (kraj)), *okrǫgъ (eg. Polish okręg, Serbo-Croatian okrug).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʁaɪ̯s/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ̯s

Noun

Kreis m (strong, genitive Kreises, plural Kreise)

1. circle
2. (figurative) range, scope
3. a type of territorial administrative division, district
4. a group of people united by a common interest
5. (graph theory) cycle

Usage notes

• When used in the sense of a territorial subdivision, Kreis is usually translated as district. However, in some contexts it may be translated as circle, e.g. the Imperial Circles (Reichskreise) of the Holy Roman Empire.

Declension

Declension of Kreis [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Kreis	die	Kreise
genitive	eines	des	Kreises	der	Kreise
dative	einem	dem	Kreis, Kreise1	den	Kreisen
accusative	einen	den	Kreis	die	Kreise

¹Now rare, see notes.

Hyponyms

• Anstoßkreis (“centre circle”)
• Arbeitskreis
• Artenkreis
• Bekanntenkreis (“circle of acquaintances”)
• Bibelkreis (“Bible study group”)
• Breitenkreis (“circle of latitude”)
• Buchungskreis
• Dunstkreis (“sphere of influence”)
• Familienkreis (“family circle”)
• Freundeskreis
• Gesichtskreis
• Gesprächskreis (“discussion group”)
• Halbkreis
• Inkreis
• Kornkreis
• Kreidekreis (“Chalk Circle”)
• Kulturkreis (“culture, cultural circle, cultural environment”)
• Landkreis
• Leserkreis (“readership”)
• Lichtkreis (“circle of light, radius of a light source”)
• Liederkreis (“song cycle”)
• Polarkreis (“Arctic Circle”)
• Rassenkreis
• Reichskreis (“Imperial Circle”)
• Schaltkreis
• Sitzkreis (“circle of chairs”)
• Spielkreis (“amateur theatre or music group”)
• Stadtkreis
• Stromkreis
• Tanzkreis (“dance circle”)
• Teilkreis (“penalty arc”)
• Teufelskreis
• Verteilerkreis
• Wirkungsbereich (“sphere of activity, sphere of impact”)

Derived terms

• Umkreis

Related terms

• kreisen
• kreisförmig
• kreisfrei
• kreisfreie Stadt
• kreisrund
• Kreisverkehr

Descendants

• →⇒ Czech: okres
• →⇒ Slovak: okres

Further reading

• “Kreis”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[1] (in German)
• “Kreis” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Kreis” in Duden online
• Kreis on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de
• “Kreis” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.