agony

[æɡənɪ]

/[æɡənɪ]/ noun

The verdict

“agony” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency German
5
letters

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

Corpus desk

Index DE-agony · agony · German

agony · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "A" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for agony
PropertyValue
Headwordagony
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[æɡənɪ]
Letters5
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „agony“ im Deutschen

agonyschafft es nicht in die Top 100.000 des Deutschen: Zone für Fach-, Alt- oder Seltenwortschatz.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

agony is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed [æɡənɪ]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for agony, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct German form is agony, spelled A-G-O-N-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qual
  2. 2
    Todeskampf

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. "Judas was gone on his errand, and there remained but brief space for that approaching agony of mind and body, only possible to be produced by the combined divine capacity and human extremity of anguish."
  2. "The agony of Christ upon the cross, dying a slow death from rabid violence among the Jews, and barbarous wounds inflicted by the Roman soldiers, to drain away the blood of life, and torture all the nerves of sense, and all the feelings of the soul within the body, is the highest illustration of the meaning of the word;…The phenomena of agony vary with th…

Synonyms

anguishpangtorturetormentdistressrackthroesevere painextreme suffering

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "agony"?
"agony" is spelled A-G-O-N-Y. The IPA pronunciation is [æɡənɪ].
What does "agony" mean?
As a noun, "agony" means: Qual
How do you pronounce "agony"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "agony" is [æɡənɪ]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "agony" come from?
"agony" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list