Elend
[ˈeːlɛnt]
The verdict
“Elend” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #7,599 in German word frequency and used as a noun.
- #7,599
- frequency rank, German
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - das Land außerhalb der eigenen Heimat, die Fremde, das Wohnen in der Fremde, das Wohnen im Ausland
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 | Elend |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈeːlɛnt] |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,599 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Elend” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for Elend is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈeːlɛnt]. Corpus data places it at rank #7,599 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for Elend, with forms such as "eelnd", "eledn", and "elendd". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "even", "Eren", "Event", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is Elend, spelled E-L-E-N-D.
Definition
- 1das Land außerhalb der eigenen Heimat, die Fremde, das Wohnen in der Fremde, das Wohnen im Ausland
- 2Zustand von Hilf- und Rechtlosigkeit und die daraus resultierende Befindlichkeit des Leides, des Kummers und des Unglücks
- 3materieller Mangel
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eelnd,eledn,elendd,elennd,ellend,elned,leend
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Elend - 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 “Elend”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is E-L-E-N-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈeːlɛnt] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “even” - see the side-by-side comparison. Elend vs even
- 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.