Elbe
[ˈɛlbə]
The verdict
“Elbe” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #6,054 in German word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #6,054
- frequency rank, German
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - mitteleuropäischer Fluss, Strom in Europa, der im Riesengebirge entspringt, danach Tschechien und Deutschland durchfließt und nordwestlich von Hamburg in die Nordsee mündet
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 | Elbe |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | [ˈɛlbə] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #6,054 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Elbe” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for Elbe is 4 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈɛlbə]. Corpus data places it at rank #6,054 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "mitteleuropäischer Fluss, Strom in Europa, der im Riesengebirge entspringt, danach Tschechien und Deutschland durchfließt und nordwestlich von Hamburg in die Nordsee mündet".
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for Elbe, with forms such as "eble", "elbbe", and "eleb". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "elf", "EZB", "eye", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is Elbe, spelled E-L-B-E.
Definition
- 1mitteleuropäischer Fluss, Strom in Europa, der im Riesengebirge entspringt, danach Tschechien und Deutschland durchfließt und nordwestlich von Hamburg in die Nordsee mündet
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eble,elbbe,eleb,ellbe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Elbe - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “Elbe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is E-L-B-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈɛlbə] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “elf” - see the side-by-side comparison. Elbe vs elf
- 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.