Crème de la Crème

/[ˌkʁɛmdəlaˈkʁɛm]/ noun

The verdict

“Crème de la Crème” is outside the top-ranked German vocabulary, used as a noun — the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency German
17
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Gruppe, die als am besten/wichtigsten gilt

Key facts for Crème de la Crème
PropertyValue
HeadwordCrème de la Crème
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˌkʁɛmdəlaˈkʁɛm]
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “Crème de la Crème” sits in German frequency

Crème de la Crème falls outside the top-100,000 ranked German words — the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for Crème de la Crème is 17 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˌkʁɛmdəlaˈkʁɛm]. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Gruppe, die als am besten/wichtigsten gilt".

No misspelling variants are generated for Crème de la Crème in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

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 Crème de la Crème, spelled C-R-È-M-E- -D-E- -L-A- -C-R-È-M-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Gruppe, die als am besten/wichtigsten gilt

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Crème de la Crème"?
"Crème de la Crème" is spelled C-R-È-M-E- -D-E- -L-A- -C-R-È-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is [ˌkʁɛmdəlaˈkʁɛm].
What does "Crème de la Crème" mean?
As a noun, "Crème de la Crème" means: Gruppe, die als am besten/wichtigsten gilt
How do you pronounce "Crème de la Crème"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Crème de la Crème" is [ˌkʁɛmdəlaˈkʁɛm]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Crème de la Crème" come from?
"Crème de la Crème" 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.

Using “Crème de la Crème”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct German spelling is C-R-È-M-E- -D-E- -L-A- -C-R-È-M-E — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as [ˌkʁɛmdəlaˈkʁɛm] (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

Nearby German words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our German index:

Explore PlainSpell

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.