broken
[ˈbrəʊkən]
The verdict
“broken” is a moderately-common German word, ranked #25,482 in German word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #25,482
- frequency rank, German
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - zerbrochen, kaputt, defekt, beschädigt
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 | broken |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | [ˈbrəʊkən] |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #25,482 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “broken” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for broken is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈbrəʊkən]. Corpus data places it at rank #25,482 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for broken, with forms such as "bbroken", "brkoen", and "broekn". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "brown", "Brote", "Broker", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct German form is broken, spelled B-R-O-K-E-N.
Definition
- 1zerbrochen, kaputt, defekt, beschädigt
- 2gebrochen
- 3unterbrochen, gestört
- 4gebrochen, zerrüttet, geknickt
- 5uneben
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbroken,brkoen,broekn,brokenn,brokken,brokne,brroken,rboken
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of broken - 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
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Using “broken”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is B-R-O-K-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈbrəʊkən] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “brown” - see the side-by-side comparison. broken vs brown
- 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.