château
The verdict
“château” is a moderately-common German word, ranked #38,670 in German word frequency and used as a noun.
- #38,670
- frequency rank, German
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
Dominant Wiktionary sense: mittelalterlicher, befestigter Wohn- und Verteidigungsbau
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | château |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ʃɑto] |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #38,670 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “château” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for château is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ʃɑto]. Corpus data places it at rank #38,670 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for château, with forms such as "cchâteau", "chhâteau", and "chtâeau". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "chapeau", 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 spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is château, spelled C-H-Â-T-E-A-U, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1mittelalterlicher, befestigter Wohn- und Verteidigungsbau
- 2prunkvolles und repräsentatives Wohngebäude, meistens von Adelsfamilien
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cchâteau,chhâteau,chtâeau,châetau,châtaeu,châteua,châtteau,câhteau,hcâteau
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of château - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Edit distance from "château"
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.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “château, German word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/de/wort/chateau
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "château"?
What does "château" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "château"?
How do you pronounce "château"?
What language does "château" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “château”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is C-H-Â-T-E-A-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ʃɑto] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “chapeau” - see the side-by-side comparison. château vs chapeau
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Nearby German words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our German index: