an sich
[an zɪç]
The verdict
“an sich” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - den Gegebenheiten als solchen, den Tatsachen als solchen, der Wirklichkeit als solcher entsprechend; kann aber bei Aussagen einen Widerspruch oder Einschränkungen suggerieren
Corpus desk
Index DE-an-sich · an sich · German
an sich · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | an sich |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | [an zɪç] |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „an sich“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
an sich is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase, transcribed [an zɪç]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for an sich in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct German form is an sich, spelled A-N- -S-I-C-H.
Definition
- 1den Gegebenheiten als solchen, den Tatsachen als solchen, der Wirklichkeit als solcher entsprechend; kann aber bei Aussagen einen Widerspruch oder Einschränkungen suggerieren
- 2an sich selbst
- 3Dinge, Erscheinungen außerhalb des Bewusstseins und/oder des Denkens
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how an sich appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
An sich macht die Arbeit Spaß.
An sich arbeiten macht auch Spaß.
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.