eben

eben (comparative more eben, superlative most eben)

1. Pronunciation spelling of even, representing African-American English.

eben (comparative more eben, superlative most eben)

1. Pronunciation spelling of even, representing African-American English.

• Bene, NEbE, been, bene, neeb

Borrowed from Latin ebenus. Doublet of banús.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈe.βən]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈe.bən]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈe.ben]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

eben m (plural ébens)

1. ebony (tree, wood, color)

   Synonym: banús

• ebenista

• “eben”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “eben”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “eben” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “eben” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Latin ebenus.

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛbɛn]
• Hyphenation: e‧ben

eben m inan

1. ebony (tree, wood, color)

• “eben”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “eben”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “eben”, in Akademický slovník současné češtiny, 2012–2026, slovnikcestiny.cz
• “eben”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2026

The adjective is from Middle High German eben, from Old High German eban, the adverb from ebano; from Proto-West Germanic *ebn, from Proto-Germanic *ebnaz and its adverb equivalent. Cognate with Low German even, Dutch even, effen, English even, Danish jævn.

• IPA^(key): /eːbən/, [ˈeːbən], [ˈeːbm̩]
• (nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ˈeːbənt/, [ˈeː(b)m̩t]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːbən

eben (strong nominative masculine singular ebener or ebner, comparative ebener or ebner, superlative am ebensten)

1. flat, smooth, even (of a surface)

• ebenerdig

• Ebene
• ebnen
• ebenbürtig
• neben

eben

1. (modal particle) just, simply, indicating that something is generally known or cannot be changed, and is therefore to be accepted; often equivalent to a shrug

   Synonym: halt

   Er ist eben ein Idiot...

   He's an idiot, that's just how he is...

   Dann müssen wir eben härter arbeiten.

   Then we'll just have to work harder.

2. (modal particle) just, quickly, indicating that something is done fast or without much complication

   Synonym: kurz

   Ich geh mal eben zur Theke.

   I'll just go to the bar.

   Könnten Sie mir vielleicht eben helfen?

   Could you maybe help me out really quickly?

3. just; a moment ago

   Wo ist denn dein Mann? Der saß doch eben noch hier.

   Where's your husband? He was sitting here just a minute ago.

4. (rare) even

   Und du kannst mir sagen, wie gut (oder schlecht eben...) es ist.

   And you can tell me how good (or even how bad...) it is.

5. (literary, with a demonstrative determiner or pronoun) exactly, very

   Synonym: genau

   Es sollte eben diese Entscheidung sein, die ihn in den Bankrott treiben würde.

   It would be this very decision that drove him into bankruptcy.

• ebent (dialectal)

eben

1. exactly; used to express agreement with an argument while not having needed convincing
   • 1996 August 3, Steffen Offermann, “gcc /LINUX-Problem”, in maus.lang.c‎^[1] (Usenet):

     [ES> Professionelle Anwendungen interessieren sich heute eigentlich kaum noch fuer die zur Verfuegung stehende Rechenleistung.]
     Eben. Und das ist es, was ich allem voran bemaengele.

     [ES> Professional applications honestly hardly even care about the available computing power anymore, nowadays.]
     Exactly. And that is what I criticize most of all.

• ebent (dialectal)

• “eben (flach, glatt)” in Duden online
• “eben (genau, gerade)” in Duden online
• “eben (soeben, vorhin, schnell)” in Duden online
• “eben” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

eb (“dog”) +‎ -en (“on”)

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛbɛn]
• Hyphenation: eben

eben

1. superessive singular of eb

Borrowed from French ébène, from Latin ebenus.

eben n (uncountable)

1. ebony

• heban (obsolete)

From Latin ebenum, from ebenus, from Ancient Greek ἔβενος (ébenos), from Egyptian hbnj,

• IPA^(key): /eben/, [ˈeben]
• Rhymes: -eben
• Hyphenation: e‧ben

eben m inan (relational adjective ebenový)

1. ebony (tree, wood, color)

   Synonym: čerň

• “eben”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2026
• Králik, Ľubor (2016), “eben”, in Stručný etymologický slovník slovenčiny [Concise Etymological Dictionary of Slovak] (in Slovak), Bratislava: VEDA; JÚĽŠ SAV, →ISBN, page 142

eben

1. second-person singular possessive of ebe