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Dingsbums

September 27, 2011

Learn a funny, quirky German word each week with DW's Word of the Week feature. This week: Dingsbums.

https://p.dw.com/p/RnvW
Question mark mowed onto a field
Image: picture alliance / dpa

"Dingsbums" - now, what could that be? Well, that's just the problem - we can't tell you either! Dingsbums could be anything, and that's the beauty of the word. You could translate it with "thingamajig" or "doohickey" in English. Dingsbums - or in its shorter form, just "Dings" - is the go-to word when you don't know what it is you want to say. So don't fret if you forget some of our words of the week along the way. There's just one you have to keep in mind. Wait, what was it again?

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