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What does “geweldig” mean in Dutch?

Geweldig means “wonderful,” “amazing,” or “great.” It comes from geweld, which means force or violence. The same shift happened in English with “terrific” (from “terror”) or “awesome” (from “awe/dread”): something of overwhelming power became, over time, just overwhelmingly good. So when a Dutch speaker says “Ik voel me geweldig!” — “I feel great!” — the word literally reaches back to power and force, now fully positive.

Here the speaker replies to “Hoe voel je je vandaag?” with “Ik voel me geweldig” (I feel wonderful). Geweld goes back to Proto-Germanic gawaldiz, from a root meaning to rule or hold sway — the same family as English wield (to wield power). The suffix -ig makes it an adjective: “of great force,” which gradually softened into “tremendous” and then “brilliant.” The noun geweld kept the harder edge and still means violence in modern Dutch news headlines — showing how far the two words have drifted apart. As a one-word reaction, “Geweldig!” sits comfortably next to fantastisch and prachtig. You’ll hear it in: een geweldig idee (a great idea), geweldig nieuws (wonderful news), and dat was geweldig! (that was brilliant!).