Anlaut
German, noun/ˈanˌlaʊ̯t/
Anlaut is spelled A-N-L-A-U-T (6 letters) and appears about once in every 9 million words in written German, the 156,943rd most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Anlaut is a German masculine noun meaning “the position of a sound at the beginning of a word” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “erster Laut eines Wortes oder einer Silbe”.
What does Anlaut mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinethe position of a sound at the beginning of a word
- 2
masculinethe position of a sound at the beginning of a syllable
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
noun: 1. erster Laut eines Wortes oder einer Silbe
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of Anlaut
- Anlautes genitive
- Anlauts genitive
- Anlaute plural
- Anlauten dative definite plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce Anlaut?
- /ˈanˌlaʊ̯t/
- [ˈanˌlaʊ̯t]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is Anlaut in German?
Anlaut appears about once in every 9 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).