gesundheit

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US, UK/ɡəˈzʊnt.haɪt/US, UK/ɡəˈzʊn.taɪt//ɡəˈzʊnt.hʌɪt//ɡəˈzʊnd.hʌɪt/

interjection

Said to someone who has just sneezed.

Similar
bless you
OriginGerman Gesundheit →
Less commonScrabble 15
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Meanings

interjection

alternative Gesundheit · alternative gezuntheit

  1. CanadaUSSaid to someone who has just sneezed.

    Everybody Was at It, and There Was No One to Say Gesundheit

    1897 July 24, “SNEEZES INTERRUPTED COURT”, in The Albany Law Journal, volume 56, number 4, page 67
    1 more example

    I used to play a game with David and Douggie, Dennis and Drew — stop their sneezes midsniff just by placing my pinkie finger against their nostrils and saying gesundheit before it was time.

    2000, Abby Frucht, Polly's Ghost: A Novel (Fiction), Scribner, →ISBN, page 55
  2. humorousSaid in response to a word that sounds onomatopoeically similar to a sneeze.

    Flynn: All right, Blondie. Rapunzel: Rapunzel! Flynn: Gesundheit.

    2010 November 28, Dan Fogelman, directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, Tangled, Walt Disney Pictures
  3. datedUsed as a toast

    Gesundheit, grandpa

    1906, Rainier Beer advertisement

Synonyms & antonyms

Similar
bless you
Also see
bless you

Origin

  1. GermanGesundheit
  2. Englishgesundheit

Unadapted borrowing from German Gesundheit (literally “health”), from gesund (“healthy”). The adjective is cognate with English sound, from Old English ġesund (“sound, safe, healthy”).

More words from German

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

gesundheit. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gesundheit

MLA

“gesundheit.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gesundheit. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gesundheit,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gesundheit.

Source: gesundheit on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.