Goethe

American  

[gur-tuh, gœ-tuh] / ˈgɜr tə, ˈgœ tə /

noun

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

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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)

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Other Word Forms

• Goethean
  adjective
• Goethian
  adjective

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Goethe

In recent weeks, the German government had explained it was so far keeping the Russian House open by pointing to its bilateral contractual link to the Goethe Institute in Moscow.

From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026

Forster’s marriage also brought him suffering—he was disdained by his wife and cuckolded by his friends—indeed, his marital situation may have given Goethe the basis for his 1809 novel “Elective Affinities.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

"Goethe is regarded as the founder of morphology and would likely have been delighted to see how we were able to gain valuable insights in this field using entirely new methods," says Bernhard Bock.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2026

The philosophical bent of Palantir came from Karp, who holds a Ph.D. in neoclassical social theory from Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 4, 2026

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