bemühen
[bəˈmyːən]
The verdict
“bemühen” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #6,041 in German word frequency and used as a verb.
- #6,041
- frequency rank, German
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 16
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - sich Mühe geben, sich anstrengen
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 | bemühen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [bəˈmyːən] |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #6,041 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bemühen” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for bemühen is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [bəˈmyːən]. Corpus data places it at rank #6,041 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for bemühen, with forms such as "bbemühen", "bemhüen", and "bemmühen". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "bemüht", "beugen", "blühen", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
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 bemühen, spelled B-E-M-Ü-H-E-N.
Definition
- 1sich Mühe geben, sich anstrengen
- 2jemanden oder etwas zu Rate ziehen, jemanden um Hilfe bei etwas bitten
- 3sich um jemanden kümmern
- 4jemandem zu gefallen versuchen
- 5an einen Ort gehen
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbemühen,bemhüen,bemmühen,bemüehn,bemühenn,bemühhen,bemühne,beümhen,bmeühen,ebmühen
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bemühen - 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "bemühen"?
What does "bemühen" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "bemühen"?
How do you pronounce "bemühen"?
What language does "bemühen" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “bemühen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is B-E-M-Ü-H-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [bəˈmyːən] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “bemüht” - see the side-by-side comparison. bemühen vs bemüht
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
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.