ducken

[ˈdʊkn̩]

/[ˈdʊkn̩]/ verb

The verdict

“ducken” is an uncommon German word, ranked #70,169 in German word frequency and used as a verb.

#70,169
frequency rank, German
6
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - den Kopf oder Oberkörper nach unten einziehen, um nicht von etwas getroffen oder jemandem gesehen zu werden

Key facts for ducken
PropertyValue
Headwordducken
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[ˈdʊkn̩]
Letters6
Frequency rank#70,169
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “ducken” sits in German frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). ducken lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for ducken is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈdʊkn̩]. Corpus data places it at rank #70,169 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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

Antonyms

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.

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.

Using “ducken”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct German spelling is D-U-C-K-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as [ˈdʊkn̩] (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
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list