about
[əˈbaʊt]
The verdict
“about” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #7,001 in German word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #7,001
- frequency rank, German
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - an, etwa, gut, rund, ungefähr, zirka
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 | about |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | [əˈbaʊt] |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,001 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “about” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for about is 5 letters long, classified as an adverb, 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 generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for about, with forms such as "abbout", "abotu", and "aboutt". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, 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 borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is about, spelled A-B-O-U-T.
Definition
- 1an, etwa, gut, rund, ungefähr, zirka
- 2herum, ringsherum, ringsumher, rundherum, umher
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abbout,abotu,aboutt,abuot,aobut,baout
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of about - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “about”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is A-B-O-U-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [əˈbaʊt] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “abu” - see the side-by-side comparison. about vs abu
- 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.