befürchten
[bəˈfʏʁçtn̩]
The verdict
“befürchten” has 16 generated spelling variants in the German index at frequency #7,013. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #7,013
- frequency rank, German
- 5,818
- “B” headwords
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - der Ansicht sein, dass etwas Unangenehmes eintreten oder geschehen könnte
Corpus desk
Index DE-befurchten · befürchten · German
befürchten · rank #7,013 · 16 variants · 6 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #7,013
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 16 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,818
- PHOTO-FINISH Ausgangspunkt
Nearest frequency peer: Ausgangspunkt (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “befürchten”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Auftakt
Auftakt
92,991 corpus weight
- ausfallen
ausfallen
92,990 corpus weight
- Ausgangspun…
Ausgangspunkt
92,989 corpus weight
- befürchten
befürchten
92,988 corpus weight
- bemerkenswe…
bemerkenswert
92,987 corpus weight
- bemerkte
bemerkte
92,986 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “befürchten” sits against the nearest ranked German headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | befürchten |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [bəˈfʏʁçtn̩] |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #7,013 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “befürchten” sits in German frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 16 spelling variants around befürchten (IPA [bəˈfʏʁçtn̩]), averb. Corpus frequency is #7,013 among 5,818 “B” headwords. Dominant gloss: "der Ansicht sein, dass etwas Unangenehmes eintreten oder geschehen könnte".
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for befürchten, with forms such as "bbefürchten", "beffürchten", and "befrüchten". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "besuchten", "befürchtet", "Befürchtung", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is befürchten, spelled B-E-F-Ü-R-C-H-T-E-N.
Definition
- 1der Ansicht sein, dass etwas Unangenehmes eintreten oder geschehen könnte
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how befürchten appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ich befürchte, dass es morgen stark regnen wird.
„Dieses Vorhaben war nicht ganz uneigennützig, denn aufgrund des erstarkenden Skandinavismus war zu befürchten, Finnland könnte sich vom Russischen Reich abspalten und erneut Schweden zuwenden.“
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bbefürchten
- beffürchten
- befrüchten
- befücrhten
- befürcchten
- befürchetn
- befürchhten
- befürchtenn
- befürchtne
- befürchtten
- befürcthen
- befürhcten
- befürrchten
- beüfrchten
- bfeürchten
- ebfürchten
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of befürchten - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "befürchten"?
What does "befürchten" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "befürchten"?
How do you pronounce "befürchten"?
What language does "befürchten" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar German words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "befürchten", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked German headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (16 here; floor ≥5).
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.