about

/[əˈbaʊt]/ adv

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#7,001

in German word usage

Misspellings

6

tracked variants

Confusables

19

similar word pairs

about is anGermanadv. It means: an, etwa, gut, rund, ungefähr, zirka Pronounced [əˈbaʊt]. It ranks #7,001 in German word frequency. Often confused with abu and aut.

Key facts for about
PropertyValue
Headwordabout
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdv
IPA[əˈbaʊt]
Letters5
Frequency rank#7,001
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs19
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of about in German word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for about is 5 letters long, classified as anadv, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [əˈbaʊt]. Corpus data places it at rank #7,001 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for about, with forms such as "abbout", "abotu", and "aboutt". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "abu", "aut", "akut", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is about, spelled A-B-O-U-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    an, etwa, gut, rund, ungefähr, zirka
  2. 2
    herum, ringsherum, ringsumher, rundherum, umher

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: abbout,abotu,aboutt,abuot,aobut,baout

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for about

Misspelling Variants of "about"

abbout6abotu5aboutt6abuot5aobut5baout5
Misspelling Variants of "about"

Frequency rank: #7,001 in German

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "about"?
"about" is spelled A-B-O-U-T. The IPA pronunciation is [əˈbaʊt].
What does "about" mean?
As an adv, "about" means: an, etwa, gut, rund, ungefähr, zirka
What words are commonly confused with "about"?
"about" is commonly confused with "abu", "aut", "akut". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "about"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "about" is [əˈbaʊt]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "about" come from?
"about" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby German words

Other entries that begin with the letter A in our German index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.