besitzen

Name: besitzen, German Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

[bəˈzɪt͡sn̩]

/[bəˈzɪt͡sn̩]/ verb

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“besitzen” has 12 generated spelling variants in the German index at frequency #2,428. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,428
frequency rank, German: 5,818
“B” headwords: 12
tracked misspellings: 18
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - etwas als Besitz oder Eigentum haben, über das man verfügen kann

Corpus desk

Index DE-besitzen · besitzen · German

besitzen · rank #2,428 · 12 variants · 18 confusables

FREQ-COMMON #2,428
LEN-LONG 8 letters
VOW-3 3 vowels
CONFUS-HIGH 18 pairs
VAR-MID 12 variants
BOOK-DENSE 5,818
PHOTO-FINISH Ausdruck

Nearest frequency peer: Ausdruck (-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.

angesichts

97,577
Ausdruck

97,574
besitzen

97,573
bestellt

97,572
bewegt

97,571
beweisen

97,570

What this shows „besitzen“ sitzt unter diesen FrequencyWords-Peers; die Tippfehlertiefe steht separat im Edit-Distance-Chart.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

besitzen vs besten

75% similar

besitzen vs besitzt

75% similar

besitzen vs blitzen

75% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for besitzen
Property	Value
Headword	besitzen
Language	German
Part of speech	Verb
IPA	[bəˈzɪt͡sn̩]
Letters	8
Frequency rank	#2,428
Misspellings tracked	12
Confusable pairs	18
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Häufigkeitslage von Tippfehler-Magnet „besitzen“

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.besitzenliegt hier neben dem Tippfehler-Druck:

#2,428

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „Ausdruck“ (#2,427), „bestellt“ (#2,429), „bewegt“ (#2,430). Unter 5,818 „B“-Lemmata liegt „besitzen“ bei #2,428. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around besitzen (IPA [bəˈzɪt͡sn̩]), averb. Corpus frequency is #2,428 among 5,818 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for besitzen, with forms such as "bbesitzen", "beistzen", and "besitezn". 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 18 confusable-pair relationships, "besten", "besitzt", "blitzen", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

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. The correct German form is besitzen, spelled B-E-S-I-T-Z-E-N.

Definition

1
etwas als Besitz oder Eigentum haben, über das man verfügen kann
2
die tatsächliche Sachherrschaft haben
3
etwas aufweisen, mit etwas ausgestattet sein
4
Kontrolle über jemanden ausüben

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

Ich besitze ein Haus, auch wenn es der Bank gehört.
Ein Mieter besitzt die Wohnung, die er gemietet hat.

Synonyms

habensein Eigen nennenverfügen gehören aufweisen haben verfügen

This word in other languages

own(English)poseer(Español)posséder(Français)possuir(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

bbesitzen
beistzen
besitezn
besittzen
besitzenn
besitzne
besitzzen
besizten
bessitzen
bestizen
bseitzen
ebsitzen

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of besitzen - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

Edit distance from "besitzen"

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 "besitzen"?

"besitzen" is spelled B-E-S-I-T-Z-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is [bəˈzɪt͡sn̩].

What does "besitzen" mean?

As a verb, "besitzen" means: etwas als Besitz oder Eigentum haben, über das man verfügen kann

What words are commonly confused with "besitzen"?

"besitzen" is commonly confused with "besten", "besitzt", "blitzen". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "besitzen"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "besitzen" is [bəˈzɪt͡sn̩]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "besitzen" come from?

"besitzen" 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.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "besitzen", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Ausdruck#2,427 bestellt#2,429 beweisen#2,431 Bewohner#2,432

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).