ersatz

/[ɛʁ.zats]/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#3,576

in German word usage

Misspellings

9

tracked variants

Confusables

5

similar word pairs

ersatz is aGermannoun. It means: Surrogat Pronounced [ɛʁ.zats]. It ranks #3,576 in German word frequency. Often confused with erst and erste.

Key facts for ersatz
PropertyValue
Headwordersatz
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ɛʁ.zats]
Letters6
Frequency rank#3,576
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of ersatz in German word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for ersatz is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ɛʁ.zats]. Corpus data places it at rank #3,576 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Surrogat".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for ersatz, with forms such as "erastz", "errsatz", and "ersattz". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "erst", "erste", "ersetzt", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is ersatz, spelled E-R-S-A-T-Z, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Surrogat

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: erastz,errsatz,ersattz,ersatzz,ersazt,erssatz,erstaz,esratz,resatz

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for ersatz

Misspelling Variants of "ersatz"

erastz6errsatz7ersattz7ersatzz7ersazt6erssatz7erstaz6esratz6
Misspelling Variants of "ersatz"

Frequency rank: #3,576 in German

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ersatz"?
"ersatz" is spelled E-R-S-A-T-Z. The IPA pronunciation is [ɛʁ.zats].
What does "ersatz" mean?
As a noun, "ersatz" means: Surrogat
What words are commonly confused with "ersatz"?
"ersatz" is commonly confused with "erst", "erste", "ersetzt". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ersatz"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ersatz" is [ɛʁ.zats]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ersatz" come from?
"ersatz" 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.

Nearby German words

Other entries that begin with the letter E in our German index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.