Skip to content

beziehungsweise

or rather

conjunction be-TSEE-ungs-vy-ze Rare
Communication Expressions

Also means

respectively

Usage Note

beziehungsweise links alternatives or corrects a prior statement, meaning or rather or respectively. Often abbreviated bzw. in writing. It connects two items that apply correspondingly to two cases.

Examples

"Die Männer beziehungsweise Frauen bekamen getrennte Räume."

Natural Translation

The men and women respectively were given separate rooms.

Literal Translation

The men respectively women got separate rooms.

Explore German by topic