affair

[əˈfɛə]

/[əˈfɛə]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“affair” is uncommon German (frequency #60,320 among 6,976 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#60,320
frequency rank, German
6,976
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Affäre, Angelegenheit

Corpus desk

Index DE-affair · affair · German

affair · rank #60,320 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #60,320
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,976
  • PHOTO-FINISH agriculture

Nearest frequency peer: agriculture (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „affair“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „affair“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for affair
PropertyValue
Headwordaffair
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[əˈfɛə]
Letters6
Frequency rank#60,320
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „affair“ im Deutschen

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).affairfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „agriculture“ (#60,321), „adaptieren“ (#60,318), „Akkuschrauber“ (#60,322). Unter 6,976 „A“-Lemmata liegt „affair“ bei #60,320. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

affair is uncommon German at frequency #60,320 among 6,976 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [əˈfɛə]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for affair, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct German form is affair, spelled A-F-F-A-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Affäre, Angelegenheit
  2. 2
    Liebesverhältnis, Techtelmechtel

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how affair appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. "'Now," said Sir Henry Baskerville, "perhaps you will tell me, Mr. Holmes, what in thunder is the meaning of that, and who it is that takes so much interest in my affairs?'"
  2. His wife had an affair with her boss.

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

How do you spell "affair"?
"affair" is spelled A-F-F-A-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is [əˈfɛə].
What does "affair" mean?
As a noun, "affair" means: Affäre, Angelegenheit
How do you pronounce "affair"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "affair" is [əˈfɛə]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "affair" come from?
"affair" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "affair", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ablöst#60,312zenith#60,275Witzes#60,266avanti#60,378

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list