be all ears

/[…]/ phrase

The verdict

“be all ears” is outside the top-ranked German vocabulary, used as a phrase - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency German
11
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: ganz Ohr sein

Key facts for be all ears
PropertyValue
Headwordbe all ears
LanguageGerman
Part of speechPhrase
IPA[…]
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “be all ears” sits in German frequency

be all ears falls outside the top-100,000 ranked German words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for be all ears is 11 letters long, classified as a phrase, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as […]. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "ganz Ohr sein".

No misspelling variants are generated for be all ears in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is be all ears, spelled B-E- -A-L-L- -E-A-R-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    ganz Ohr sein

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.

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:

PlainSpell, “be all ears, German word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/de/wort/be-all-ears

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "be all ears"?
"be all ears" is spelled B-E- -A-L-L- -E-A-R-S. The IPA pronunciation is […].
What does "be all ears" mean?
As a phrase, "be all ears" means: ganz Ohr sein
How do you pronounce "be all ears"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "be all ears" is […]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "be all ears" come from?
"be all ears" 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.

Using “be all ears”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct German spelling is B-E- -A-L-L- -E-A-R-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as […] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words

Nearby German words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our German index:

Explore PlainSpell

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list