asylum

noun

The verdict

“asylum” is uncommon German (frequency #51,932 among 6,976 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,932
frequency rank, German
6,976
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ort, an dem Verbrechern und Bedürftigen Schutz gewährt wird; Asyl, Freistätte, Zufluchtsstätte

Corpus desk

Index DE-asylum · asylum · German

asylum · rank #51,932 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,932
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,976
  • PHOTO-FINISH armseligen

Nearest frequency peer: armseligen (-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 „asylum“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for asylum
PropertyValue
Headwordasylum
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
Letters6
Frequency rank#51,932
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „asylum“ im Deutschen

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.asylumfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „armseligen“ (#51,931), „Athletin“ (#51,933), „Arithmetik“ (#51,930). Unter 6,976 „A“-Lemmata liegt „asylum“ bei #51,932. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

asylum is uncommon German at frequency #51,932 among 6,976 “A” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Ort, an dem Verbrechern und Bedürftigen Schutz gewährt wird; Asyl, Freistätte, Zufluchtsstätte".

asylum has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 asylum, spelled A-S-Y-L-U-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ort, an dem Verbrechern und Bedürftigen Schutz gewährt wird; Asyl, Freistätte, Zufluchtsstätte

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. „Nuper M. Aurelio Scauro postulante, quod is Ephesi se quaestorem vi prohibitum esse dicebat quo minus e fano Dianae servum suum, qui in illud asylum confugisset, abduceret, Pericles Ephesius, homo nobilissimus, Romam evocatus est, quod auctor illius iniuriae fuisse arguebatur:“ (Cic. Ver. 1, 85)
  2. „hinc lucum ingentem, quem Romulus acer asylum / rettulit, et gelida monstrat sub rupe Lupercal / Parrhasio dictum Panos de more Lycaei.“ (Verg. Aen. 8, 342–344)

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 "asylum"?
"asylum" is spelled A-S-Y-L-U-M.
What does "asylum" mean?
As a noun, "asylum" means: Ort, an dem Verbrechern und Bedürftigen Schutz gewährt wird; Asyl, Freistätte, Zufluchtsstätte
What language does "asylum" come from?
"asylum" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "asylum", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list