drone

[drəʊn]

/[drəʊn]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“drone” is uncommon German (frequency #58,687 among 2,764 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#58,687
frequency rank, German
2,764
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - die männliche Biene

Corpus desk

Index DE-drone · drone · German

drone · rank #58,687 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #58,687
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,764
  • PHOTO-FINISH Drogenmissbra…

Nearest frequency peer: Drogenmissbrauch (-1 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.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „drone“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „drone“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for drone
PropertyValue
Headworddrone
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[drəʊn]
Letters5
Frequency rank#58,687
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „drone“ im Deutschen

Die Häufigkeit läuft von den wenigen Alltagswörtern (links) bis zur langen, seltenen Schwanzseite (rechts).dronefällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Drogenmissbrauch“ (#58,686), „driven“ (#58,685), „Dummköpfe“ (#58,689). Unter 2,764 „D“-Lemmata liegt „drone“ bei #58,687. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

drone is uncommon German at frequency #58,687 among 2,764 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [drəʊn]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.

drone has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No documented word history exists for this headword, 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 drone, spelled D-R-O-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    die männliche Biene
  2. 2
    das ferngesteuerte Fluggerät
  3. 3
    das gleichbleibend tiefe Geräusch
  4. 4
    die eintönige Arbeit verrichtende Person
  5. 5
    die von anderer Leute Arbeit lebende Person

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "drone"?
"drone" is spelled D-R-O-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is [drəʊn].
What does "drone" mean?
As a noun, "drone" means: die männliche Biene
How do you pronounce "drone"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "drone" is [drəʊn]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "drone" come from?
"drone" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "drone", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

chess#58,665Carls#58,662emsig#58,717erbte#58,729

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list