den Kopf über Wasser halten
[deːn kɔp͡f ˈyːbɐ ˈvasɐ ˈhaltn̩]
The verdict
“den Kopf über Wasser halten” is outside the top-ranked German vocabulary, used as a phrase - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 27
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) — finanziell/wirtschaftlich durchhalten können beziehungsweise versuchen weiterzubestehen
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | den Kopf über Wasser halten |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | [deːn kɔp͡f ˈyːbɐ ˈvasɐ ˈhaltn̩] |
| Letters | 27 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “den Kopf über Wasser halten” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for den Kopf über Wasser halten is 27 letters long, classified as a phrase, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [deːn kɔp͡f ˈyːbɐ ˈvasɐ ˈhaltn̩]. 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: "finanziell/wirtschaftlich durchhalten können beziehungsweise versuchen weiterzubestehen".
No misspelling variants are generated for den Kopf über Wasser halten 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 den Kopf über Wasser halten, spelled D-E-N- -K-O-P-F- -Ü-B-E-R- -W-A-S-S-E-R- -H-A-L-T-E-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1finanziell/wirtschaftlich durchhalten können beziehungsweise versuchen weiterzubestehen
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). 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, “den Kopf über Wasser halten, 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/den-kopf-uber-wasser-halten
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “den Kopf über Wasser halten”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is D-E-N- -K-O-P-F- -Ü-B-E-R- -W-A-S-S-E-R- -H-A-L-T-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [deːn kɔp͡f ˈyːbɐ ˈvasɐ ˈhaltn̩] (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 D in our German index: