ehm
[ɛɦm]
The verdict
“ehm” is a moderately-common German word, ranked #24,306 in German word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #24,306
- frequency rank, German
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - zur Überbrückung einer Denkpause eingesetzter Laut
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ehm |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | [ɛɦm] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #24,306 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ehm” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for ehm is 3 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ɛɦm]. Corpus data places it at rank #24,306 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "zur Überbrückung einer Denkpause eingesetzter Laut".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ehm, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "es", "er", "EU", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 ehm, spelled E-H-M.
Definition
- 1zur Überbrückung einer Denkpause eingesetzter Laut
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
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Using “ehm”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is E-H-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ɛɦm] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “es” - see the side-by-side comparison. ehm vs es
- 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.