ey
[ɛɪ̯]
The verdict
“ey” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #5,825 in German word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #5,825
- frequency rank, German
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Ausruf, der einen Satz einleitet (um die Aufmerksamkeit des Zuhörers zu erregen) oder abschließt (zur Verstärkung einer Aussage)
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 | ey |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | [ɛɪ̯] |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #5,825 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ey” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for ey is 2 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ɛɪ̯]. Corpus data places it at rank #5,825 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Ausruf, der einen Satz einleitet (um die Aufmerksamkeit des Zuhörers zu erregen) oder abschließt (zur Verstärkung einer Aussage)".
No generated misspelling entries exist for ey in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "EZB", "eye", "eyes", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct German form is ey, spelled E-Y.
Definition
- 1Ausruf, der einen Satz einleitet (um die Aufmerksamkeit des Zuhörers zu erregen) oder abschließt (zur Verstärkung einer Aussage)
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 "ey"?
What does "ey" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "ey"?
How do you pronounce "ey"?
What language does "ey" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “ey”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ɛɪ̯] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “EZB” - see the side-by-side comparison. ey vs EZB
- 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.