Altbau
[ˈaltˌbaʊ̯]
The verdict
“Altbau” is a moderately-common German word, ranked #21,516 in German word frequency and used as a noun.
- #21,516
- frequency rank, German
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - älteres Gebäude, welches noch vor einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt — in der Regel noch vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg — fertiggestellt worden ist
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 | Altbau |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈaltˌbaʊ̯] |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #21,516 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Altbau” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for Altbau is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈaltˌbaʊ̯]. Corpus data places it at rank #21,516 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "älteres Gebäude, welches noch vor einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt — in der Regel noch vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg — fertiggestellt worden ist".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for Altbau, with forms such as "albtau", "alltbau", and "altabu". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "Anbau", "Aufbau", "Ausbau", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is Altbau, spelled A-L-T-B-A-U.
Definition
- 1älteres Gebäude, welches noch vor einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt — in der Regel noch vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg — fertiggestellt worden ist
Antonyms
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: albtau,alltbau,altabu,altbbau,altbua,alttbau,atlbau,latbau
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Altbau - 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
How do you spell "Altbau"?
What does "Altbau" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "Altbau"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “Altbau”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is A-L-T-B-A-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈaltˌbaʊ̯] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Anbau” - see the side-by-side comparison. Altbau vs Anbau
- 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.