be putty in someone's hands

/[…]/ phrase

The verdict

“be putty in someone's hands” 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
27
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: einfach oder leicht beeinflussbar oder manipulierbar sein

Key facts for be putty in someone's hands
PropertyValue
Headwordbe putty in someone's hands
LanguageGerman
Part of speechPhrase
IPA[…]
Letters27
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “be putty in someone's hands” sits in German frequency

be putty in someone's hands 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 putty in someone's hands is 27 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: "einfach oder leicht beeinflussbar oder manipulierbar sein".

No misspelling variants are generated for be putty in someone's hands 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 putty in someone's hands, spelled B-E- -P-U-T-T-Y- -I-N- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E-'-S- -H-A-N-D-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    einfach oder leicht beeinflussbar oder manipulierbar sein

Synonyms

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 putty in someone's hands, 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-putty-in-someone-s-hands

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "be putty in someone's hands"?
"be putty in someone's hands" is spelled B-E- -P-U-T-T-Y- -I-N- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E-'-S- -H-A-N-D-S. The IPA pronunciation is […].
What does "be putty in someone's hands" mean?
As a phrase, "be putty in someone's hands" means: einfach oder leicht beeinflussbar oder manipulierbar sein
How do you pronounce "be putty in someone's hands"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "be putty in someone's hands" is […]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "be putty in someone's hands" come from?
"be putty in someone's hands" 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 putty in someone's hands”

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

  • The one correct German spelling is B-E- -P-U-T-T-Y- -I-N- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E-'-S- -H-A-N-D-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