Goethe

American  

[gur-tuh, gœ-tuh] / ˈgɜr tə, ˈgœ tə /

noun

1. Johann Wolfgang von 1749–1832, German poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher.

---

Goethe British  

/ ˈɡøːtə /

noun

1. Johann Wolfgang von (joˈhan ˈvɔlfɡaŋ fɔn). 1749–1832, German poet, novelist, and dramatist, who settled in Weimar in 1775. His early works of the Sturm und Drang period include the play Götz von Berlichingen (1773) and the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). After a journey to Italy (1786–88) his writings, such as the epic play Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787) and the epic idyll Hermann und Dorothea (1797), showed the influence of classicism. Other works include the Wilhelm Meister novels (1796–1829) and his greatest masterpiece Faust (1808; 1832)

---

Other Word Forms

• Goethean
  adjective
• Goethian
  adjective

Example Sentences

In the play, which begins as historic epic and becomes, for Goethe, increasing personal and interior, Egmont gains perspective on the complexities of his place in politics by contemplating nature and being.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2026

In Germany, nobody gets citizenship without proving basic proficiency in the language of Nietzsche, Goethe and Steffi Graf.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 17, 2026

Karp’s track record included a PhD in neoclassical social theory from Goethe University Frankfurt.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 25, 2025

The investigations required highly demanding supercomputer simulations that consumed millions of CPU hours on Frankfurt's "Goethe" supercomputer and Stuttgart's "Hawk."

From Science Daily • Oct. 8, 2025

Faust, as portrayed by Goethe, was an intellectual who sold his soul to the devil for worldly knowledge, power and pleasure.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall