German · Germany · Austria · Switzerland

Scheiße

Scheisse/ˈʃaɪ̯sə/

Listen to how locals say it.

This entry covers Scheiße, an expression in German as used in Germany · Austria · Switzerland.

Machine translation Some text on this page is machine-translated and has not been reviewed yet.

Contents

Meaning

Shit — feces, an exclamation, and a dismissal of something worthless (“alles Scheiße”).^[1]^[2]Machine-assisted translation

Pronunciation

Romanization: Scheisse
IPA: /ˈʃaɪ̯sə/

“SHY-suh” — ß is a sharp s.^[1]^[2]

Intensity

SWEAR LEVEL

Rated in-culture by native reviewers, on three separate axes.

VulgarityStrong

Assessed as how taboo the word itself is inside its own culture.

AggressivenessRude

Assessed at the most aggressive natural use aimed at a person.

Social riskRude

Assessed as what the speaker risks when saying it to a stranger on the street.

How common

Social Risk

Assessed social risk by setting.

With friendsLow risk
At schoolContext-dependentDepending on the teacher it earns a telling-off.
At workContext-dependentCommon on site, avoided in office and client-facing settings.
On the streetLow risk
OnlineLow risk

Low risk
Context-dependent
Best avoided

Shape and colour encode the same value.

Verification

Content review: Not verified yet
Translation: Machine-translated, review pending
Sources last checked: 2026-08-28

Not verified yetWaiting for native review

Published after an automated pre-check. No native reviewer has confirmed it yet.

A correction desk opens once native review starts. Until then this page records what the sources say.

How it's used

The default German swear and fairly mild. German’s Sie/du formality split matters more than the word itself: swearing while using Sie is the real breach.^[1]^[2]Machine-assisted translation

Cultural context

Wiktionary records both the literal and figurative “something worthless” senses with the synonym set Kacke/Kot/Scheiß.^[1]^[2]Machine-assisted translation

Literal meaning

feces^[1]^[2]

When to avoid it

Situations in which the expression is generally best avoided.

At school — Context-dependent. Depending on the teacher it earns a telling-off.
At work — Context-dependent. Common on site, avoided in office and client-facing settings.

Sources

Every claim on this page traces back to these entries.

↑Meaning ↑Pronunciation ↑How it's used ↑Cultural context ↑Literal meaning Scheiße — English Wiktionary (German)Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · summarised and translated here · accessed 2026-08-28
↑Meaning ↑Pronunciation ↑How it's used ↑Cultural context ↑Literal meaning Scheiße — Wiktionary (German)Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · summarised and translated here · accessed 2026-08-28

Passages derived from these dictionary entries are redistributed under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.