alt
[alt]
The verdict
“alt” is in the everyday core of German, ranked #595 in German word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #595
- frequency rank, German
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - vor langer Zeit gemacht, geschehen oder gewesen
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 | alt |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | [alt] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #595 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “alt” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for alt is 3 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [alt]. Corpus data places it at rank #595 in overall German word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for alt in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "an", "am", "at", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is alt, spelled A-L-T.
Definition
- 1vor langer Zeit gemacht, geschehen oder gewesen
- 2von hohem Alter
- 3nicht mehr im Amt
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); 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 “alt”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is A-L-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [alt] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “an” - see the side-by-side comparison. alt vs an
- 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.