erspähen
[ɛɐ̯ˈʃpɛːən]
The verdict
“erspähen” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - jemanden oder etwas sehen, nachdem man sich bemüht hat, das Ziel, das meist schwer zu entdecken ist, auszumachen
Corpus desk
Index DE-erspahen · erspähen · German
erspähen · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | erspähen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ɛɐ̯ˈʃpɛːən] |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „erspähen“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
erspähen is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed [ɛɐ̯ˈʃpɛːən]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "jemanden oder etwas sehen, nachdem man sich bemüht hat, das Ziel, das meist schwer zu entdecken ist, auszumachen".
No misspelling variants are generated for erspähen in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is erspähen, spelled E-R-S-P-Ä-H-E-N.
Definition
- 1jemanden oder etwas sehen, nachdem man sich bemüht hat, das Ziel, das meist schwer zu entdecken ist, auszumachen
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how erspähen appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Hast du unter all den ankommenden Passagieren schon den Anton erspäht?
Einsam lag der nächtliche Kai im Mondlicht, nicht eine Seele war zu erspähen.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.