dire
[diʁ]
The verdict
“dire” is uncommon German (frequency #51,243 among 45,632 “D” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,243
- frequency rank, German
- 45,632
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - etwas sagen, aussprechen
Corpus desk
Index DE-dire · dire · German
dire · rank #51,243 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #51,243
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 45,632
- PHOTO-FINISH diffus
Nearest frequency peer: diffus (-2 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “dire”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- dienende
dienende
48,762 corpus weight
- Dienstleist…
Dienstleistungssektor
48,761 corpus weight
- diffus
diffus
48,760 corpus weight
- dire
dire
48,758 corpus weight
- Diskotheken
Diskotheken
48,756 corpus weight
- Doodle
Doodle
48,755 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “dire” sits against the nearest ranked German headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dire |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [diʁ] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #51,243 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dire” sits in German frequency
Rare enough to double-check
dire is uncommon German at frequency #51,243 among 45,632 “D” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed [diʁ]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "etwas sagen, aussprechen".
dire has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct German form is dire, spelled D-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1etwas sagen, aussprechen
This word in other languages
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar German words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dire", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked German headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.