bestehlen
[bəˈʃteːlən]
The verdict
“bestehlen” is an uncommon German word, ranked #75,455 in German word frequency and used as a verb.
- #75,455
- frequency rank, German
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - jemandem (heimlich) etwas wegnehmen
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bestehlen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [bəˈʃteːlən] |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #75,455 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bestehlen” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for bestehlen is 9 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [bəˈʃteːlən]. Corpus data places it at rank #75,455 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "jemandem (heimlich) etwas wegnehmen".
bestehlen doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 bestehlen, spelled B-E-S-T-E-H-L-E-N.
Definition
- 1jemandem (heimlich) etwas wegnehmen
Antonyms
This word in other languages
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 "bestehlen"?
What does "bestehlen" mean?
How do you pronounce "bestehlen"?
What language does "bestehlen" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “bestehlen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is B-E-S-T-E-H-L-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [bəˈʃteːlən] (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
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.