From Middle High German balke, from Old High German balko, balcho, from Proto-West Germanic *balkō, from Proto-Germanic *balkô. Compare English balk.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbalkn̩/, /ˈbalkən/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Bal‧ken

Balken m (strong, genitive Balkens, plural Balken)

1. beam, crossbeam

   Synonym: (Austria) Tram

   Das Dach wird von vier Balken gestützt. ― The roof is supported by four beams.

2. bar (long, narrow drawn or printed rectangle, cuboid or cylinder, especially as used in a bar code or a bar chart; informal unit of measure of signal strength for a wireless device such as a cell phone)

   Ich habe noch vier Balken Akku. ― I still have four bars of battery.

3. (music) beam (horizontal bar which connects the stems of two or more notes to group them and to indicate metric value)
4. (heraldry) fess

• → Kashubian: balka
• → Slovincian: balka

• “Balken” in Duden online
• “Balken” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• Balken on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de