ab
[ap]
The verdict
“ab” is in the everyday core of German, ranked #102 in German word frequency and used as a preposition.
- #102
- frequency rank, German
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - von etwas weg, von jemandem weg, einem Ort weg, einem Punkt weg; ausgehend, beginnend mit, von; mehr als, vergrößert um, weniger als, verringert um, herunter, hinunter
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ab |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | [ap] |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #102 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ab” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for ab is 2 letters long, classified as a preposition, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ap]. Corpus data places it at rank #102 in overall German word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for ab in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "an", "am", "AG", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is ab, spelled A-B.
Definition
- 1von etwas weg, von jemandem weg, einem Ort weg, einem Punkt weg; ausgehend, beginnend mit, von; mehr als, vergrößert um, weniger als, verringert um, herunter, hinunter
- 2von einem Zeitpunkt weg, künftig, zukünftig, von einer Mengenangabe ausgehend
- 3von einem Ort, Punkt weg; von … ab, von … an, von hier ab, von da ab
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “ab”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is A-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ap] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “an” - see the side-by-side comparison. ab vs an
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.