ancien

[ɑ̃.sjɛ̃]

/[ɑ̃.sjɛ̃]/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ancien” is uncommon German (frequency #55,933 among 6,976 “A” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#55,933
frequency rank, German
6,976
“A” headwords

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

Corpus desk

Index DE-ancien · ancien · German

ancien · rank #55,933 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #55,933
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,976
  • PHOTO-FINISH Amphetamin

Nearest frequency peer: Amphetamin (-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 „ancien“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for ancien
PropertyValue
Headwordancien
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdjective
IPA[ɑ̃.sjɛ̃]
Letters6
Frequency rank#55,933
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „ancien“ im Deutschen

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).ancienfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Amphetamin“ (#55,932), „angebliches“ (#55,934), „angeheftet“ (#55,935). Unter 6,976 „A“-Lemmata liegt „ancien“ bei #55,933. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ancien is uncommon German at frequency #55,933 among 6,976 “A” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed [ɑ̃.sjɛ̃]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

ancien doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular German conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is ancien, spelled A-N-C-I-E-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    alt
  2. 2
    ehemalig

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. C'est une maison ancienne.
  2. Cette maison est une ancienne école.

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 "ancien"?
"ancien" is spelled A-N-C-I-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is [ɑ̃.sjɛ̃].
What does "ancien" mean?
As an adjective, "ancien" means: alt
How do you pronounce "ancien"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ancien" is [ɑ̃.sjɛ̃]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ancien" come from?
"ancien" 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 "ancien", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

beäugt#56,001Wiktor#55,864Bogens#56,012vortex#55,846

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list