Brief
[bʁiːf]
The verdict
“Brief” has 7 generated spelling variants in the German index at frequency #1,657. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,657
- frequency rank, German
- 5,818
- “B” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - geschriebene, verschlossene Mitteilung, die (meist gegen Bezahlung) per Post oder Boten verschickt wird
Corpus desk
Index DE-brief · Brief · German
Brief · rank #1,657 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,657
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,818
- PHOTO-FINISH beträgt
Nearest frequency peer: beträgt (-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 “Brief”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Ausgabe
Ausgabe
98,347 corpus weight
- Baby
Baby
98,346 corpus weight
- beträgt
beträgt
98,345 corpus weight
- Brief
Brief
98,344 corpus weight
- enthalten
enthalten
98,343 corpus weight
- erzählen
erzählen
98,342 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “Brief” 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 | Brief |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [bʁiːf] |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,657 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Wo “Brief” in der deutschen Häufigkeit sitzt
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around Brief (IPA [bʁiːf]), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,657 among 5,818 “B” headwords. Dominant gloss: "geschriebene, verschlossene Mitteilung, die (meist gegen Bezahlung) per Post oder Boten verschickt wird".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for Brief, with forms such as "bbrief", "biref", and "breif". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bring", "Brite", "brise", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is Brief, spelled B-R-I-E-F.
Definition
- 1geschriebene, verschlossene Mitteilung, die (meist gegen Bezahlung) per Post oder Boten verschickt wird
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Brief appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ich schreibe dir einen Brief.
Hast du den Brief, den ich dir geschrieben habe, schon geöffnet?
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bbrief
- biref
- breif
- brieff
- brife
- brrief
- rbief
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Brief - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "Brief"?
What does "Brief" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "Brief"?
How do you pronounce "Brief"?
What language does "Brief" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar German words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Brief", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked German headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "Brief". Here's where to go from here.
- "Brief" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "bring". View pair
- 7 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #1,657 among German headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more German words in the "B" letter cohort. B–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.