afraid

[əˈfɹeɪd]

/[əˈfɹeɪd]/ adj

The verdict

“afraid” is uncommon German (frequency #74,269 among 6,976 “A” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#74,269
frequency rank, German
6,976
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - ängstlich, besorgt, furchtsam

Corpus desk

Index DE-afraid · afraid · German

afraid · rank #74,269 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #74,269
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,976
  • PHOTO-FINISH Adenauers

Nearest frequency peer: Adenauers (-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 „afraid“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for afraid
PropertyValue
Headwordafraid
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdjective
IPA[əˈfɹeɪd]
Letters6
Frequency rank#74,269
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „afraid“ im Deutschen

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.afraidfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Adenauers“ (#74,268), „Adeliger“ (#74,267), „acting“ (#74,266). Unter 6,976 „A“-Lemmata liegt „afraid“ bei #74,269. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

afraid is uncommon German at frequency #74,269 among 6,976 “A” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed [əˈfɹeɪd]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "ängstlich, besorgt, furchtsam".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for afraid, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct German form is afraid, spelled A-F-R-A-I-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    ängstlich, besorgt, furchtsam

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. She is afraid of losing her partner cause of military actions.

Synonyms

fearfulscared

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 "afraid"?
"afraid" is spelled A-F-R-A-I-D. The IPA pronunciation is [əˈfɹeɪd].
What does "afraid" mean?
As an adjective, "afraid" means: ängstlich, besorgt, furchtsam
How do you pronounce "afraid"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "afraid" is [əˈfɹeɪd]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "afraid" come from?
"afraid" 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.

Similar German words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list