ducken

[ˈdʊkn̩]

/[ˈdʊkn̩]/ verb

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

The verdict

“ducken” is uncommon German (frequency #70,169 among 2,764 “D” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,169
frequency rank, German
2,764
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - den Kopf oder Oberkörper nach unten einziehen, um nicht von etwas getroffen oder jemandem gesehen zu werden

Corpus desk

Index DE-ducken · ducken · German

ducken · rank #70,169 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,169
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,764
  • PHOTO-FINISH Dualität

Nearest frequency peer: Dualität (-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 „ducken“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for ducken
PropertyValue
Headwordducken
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[ˈdʊkn̩]
Letters6
Frequency rank#70,169
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „ducken“ im Deutschen

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.duckenfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Dualität“ (#70,168), „duellieren“ (#70,170), „Dschungels“ (#70,167). Unter 2,764 „D“-Lemmata liegt „ducken“ bei #70,169. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ducken is uncommon German at frequency #70,169 among 2,764 “D” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed [ˈdʊkn̩]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "den Kopf oder Oberkörper nach unten einziehen, um nicht von etwas getroffen oder jemandem gesehen zu werden".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for ducken, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is ducken, spelled D-U-C-K-E-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    den Kopf oder Oberkörper nach unten einziehen, um nicht von etwas getroffen oder jemandem gesehen zu werden

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how ducken appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. George W. Bush duckte sich noch rechtzeitig, um dem nahenden Schuh auszuweichen.
  2. Das kleine Mädchen duckte sich ganz tief in die Ecke zwischen Schrank und Tür.

Antonyms

aufrichten

This word in other languages

duck(English)bajar(Español)

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 "ducken"?
"ducken" is spelled D-U-C-K-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈdʊkn̩].
What does "ducken" mean?
As a verb, "ducken" means: den Kopf oder Oberkörper nach unten einziehen, um nicht von etwas getroffen oder jemandem gesehen zu werden
How do you pronounce "ducken"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ducken" is [ˈdʊkn̩]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ducken" come from?
"ducken" 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.

Similar German words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

doofes#70,162Denner#70,149collar#70,134espace#70,225

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list