What does “größenwahnsinnig” mean in German?

Titan-Titanic-Vergleich und Marspläne von Elon Musk

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B2 German listening practice · Standard German · Curated for upper-intermediate learners

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größenwahnsinnig
German word for megalomaniac ambition
“megalomaniac,” literally “size-mad” — delusions of grandeur

Mocking billionaires' plans to visit Mars, this comedian calls such stunts größenwahnsinnige Expeditionen — “megalomaniac expeditions.” The adjective comes from Größenwahn, a compound of Größe (“size, greatness”) and Wahn (“delusion, madness”): literally “size-delusion.” It’s German’s blunt, memorable word for an inflated, almost pathological sense of one’s own importance or capability.

Größenwahn has been documented since the 19th century and is still the standard clinical and everyday term for megalomania, alongside near-synonyms like Gigantomanie. The joke in this clip works because it puts real astronauts' caution against the größenwahnsinnig confidence of billionaires chasing Mars or, earlier, the doomed Titan submersible — ambition with the delusion built right into the word.

Vocabulary frequency

How common is the vocabulary in this B2 German listening practice listening practice?

85.7%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common German words
Based on this reel’s transcript, most of the vocabulary is high-frequency, everyday German.

General German frequency

79.4%
Top 1,000
85.7%
Top 2,000
90.5%
Top 5,000

Spoken German frequency

93.5%
Top 1,000
97.2%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Conversational vocabulary
This reel’s words appear more often in subtitle-based spoken-German data than in general usage, so it may feel closer to everyday conversation.

Words above this video’s level

Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s B2 level.

milliardäre
3×
Rare / outside top 5,000
expeditionen
1×
Rare / outside top 5,000
getaucht
1×
Rare / outside top 5,000
dived
größenwahnsinnige Expeditionen
1×
megalomaniac ventures or missions

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-DE 2011 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.

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