wanderjahr

/ˈvɑn.də(ɹ)ˌjɑː/

wanderjahr noun: a year-long period of travel, especially following one’s education and prior to seeking employment.

Noun (1)

wanderjahr (plural wanderjahrs or wanderjahre)

A year-long period of travel, especially following one’s education and prior to seeking employment.
- Once he has assembled his characters in the lively youth resort of Torremolinos, Michener packs them into a Volkswagen bus and sends them on their Wanderjahr through some pretty interesting places.1971 June 27, Peter Sourian, “The Drifters”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- And these Wanderjahre, and combats with the Beast, are the story-teller's version of the incest taboo; whereby a man must first prove ‘fitness’ and then much ‘marry far’.1987, Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines, Vintage, published 1998, page 216
Synonyms:

gap year, wanderyear
(historical) A year spent by an apprentice travelling and honing skills prior to the professional practice of a trade.

Wanderjahr (plural Wanderjahrs or Wanderjahre)

From German Wanderjahr (“journeyman’s year”), from wandern (“wander, trek”) + Jahr (“year”).

What does wanderjahr mean?: Wanderjahr means a year-long period of travel, especially following one’s education and prior to seeking employment.
What part of speech is wanderjahr?: Wanderjahr is a noun.
How do you pronounce wanderjahr?: Wanderjahr is pronounced /ˈvɑn.də(ɹ)ˌjɑː/.
What is the plural of wanderjahr?: The plural of wanderjahr is wanderjahrs.

Adapted from Wiktionary: wanderjahr (page history and authors); Wanderjahr (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “wanderjahr.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wanderjahr. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.