adieu
[aˈdjøː]
The verdict
“adieu” is a moderately-common German word, ranked #25,875 in German word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #25,875
- frequency rank, German
- 5
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 12
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Abschiedsgruß
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 | adieu |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | [aˈdjøː] |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #25,875 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “adieu” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for adieu is 5 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [aˈdjøː]. Corpus data places it at rank #25,875 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Abschiedsgruß".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for adieu, with forms such as "addieu", "adeiu", and "adiue". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "Arie", "Asien", "Adler", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is adieu, spelled A-D-I-E-U.
Definition
- 1Abschiedsgruß
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: addieu,adeiu,adiue,aideu,daieu
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of adieu - 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 “adieu”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is A-D-I-E-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [aˈdjøː] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Arie” - see the side-by-side comparison. adieu vs Arie
- 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.