excuse

[ɛksˈkjuːs]

/[ɛksˈkjuːs]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“excuse” is uncommon German (frequency #65,184 among 4,632 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#65,184
frequency rank, German
4,632
“E” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - eine Erklärung oder Angabe eines Grundes zur Rechtfertigung eines Fehlers oder Vergehenes

Corpus desk

Index DE-excuse · excuse · German

excuse · rank #65,184 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #65,184
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,632
  • PHOTO-FINISH Ethnizität

Nearest frequency peer: Ethnizität (-1 rank slots)

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.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „excuse“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „excuse“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for excuse
PropertyValue
Headwordexcuse
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ɛksˈkjuːs]
Letters6
Frequency rank#65,184
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „excuse“ im Deutschen

Die Häufigkeit läuft von den wenigen Alltagswörtern (links) bis zur langen, seltenen Schwanzseite (rechts).excusefällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Ethnizität“ (#65,183), „exemplarische“ (#65,185), „Etablissements“ (#65,182). Unter 4,632 „E“-Lemmata liegt „excuse“ bei #65,184. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

excuse is uncommon German at frequency #65,184 among 4,632 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ɛksˈkjuːs]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "eine Erklärung oder Angabe eines Grundes zur Rechtfertigung eines Fehlers oder Vergehenes".

No misspelling variants are generated for excuse in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct German form is excuse, spelled E-X-C-U-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    eine Erklärung oder Angabe eines Grundes zur Rechtfertigung eines Fehlers oder Vergehenes

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how excuse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. I can't believe you're going to be so late. I hope you have a good excuse.

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

How do you spell "excuse"?
"excuse" is spelled E-X-C-U-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is [ɛksˈkjuːs].
What does "excuse" mean?
As a noun, "excuse" means: eine Erklärung oder Angabe eines Grundes zur Rechtfertigung eines Fehlers oder Vergehenes
How do you pronounce "excuse"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "excuse" is [ɛksˈkjuːs]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "excuse" come from?
"excuse" 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.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "excuse", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

enigma#65,162finite#65,214Einsen#65,141Freyer#65,232

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list