den Teufel an die Wand malen
[deːn ˈtɔɪ̯fl̩ an diː vant ˈmaːlən]
The verdict
“den Teufel an die Wand malen” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 28
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - eine übertrieben pessimistische Erwartungshaltung haben; das Schlimmste befürchten und es damit heraufbeschwören
Corpus desk
Index DE-den-teufel-an-die-wand-m · den Teufel an die Wand malen · German
den Teufel an die Wand malen · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 28 letters
- VOW-10 10 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "D" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | den Teufel an die Wand malen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | [deːn ˈtɔɪ̯fl̩ an diː vant ˈmaːlən] |
| Letters | 28 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „den Teufel an die Wand malen“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
den Teufel an die Wand malen is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase, transcribed [deːn ˈtɔɪ̯fl̩ an diː vant ˈmaːlən]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "eine übertrieben pessimistische Erwartungshaltung haben; das Schlimmste befürchten und es damit heraufbeschwören".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for den Teufel an die Wand malen, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is den Teufel an die Wand malen, spelled D-E-N- -T-E-U-F-E-L- -A-N- -D-I-E- -W-A-N-D- -M-A-L-E-N.
Definition
- 1eine übertrieben pessimistische Erwartungshaltung haben; das Schlimmste befürchten und es damit heraufbeschwören
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how den Teufel an die Wand malen appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Mal doch nicht den Teufel an die Wand, so schlimm wird der Besuch bei den Schwiegereltern schon nicht werden!
Synonyms
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.