FBI

/[ɛfbiːˈʔaɪ̯]/ abbrev

Letters

3 characters

Frequency Rank

#9,189

in German word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

FBI is anGermanabbrev. It means: Federal Bureau of Investigation, die Ermittlungsbehörde der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika Pronounced [ɛfbiːˈʔaɪ̯]. It ranks #9,189 in German word frequency. Often confused with FC and fi.

Key facts for FBI
PropertyValue
HeadwordFBI
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAbbrev
IPA[ɛfbiːˈʔaɪ̯]
Letters3
Frequency rank#9,189
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for FBI is 3 letters long, classified as anabbrev, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ɛfbiːˈʔaɪ̯]. Corpus data places it at rank #9,189 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Federal Bureau of Investigation, die Ermittlungsbehörde der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika".

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for FBI in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable German patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "FC", "fi", "FH", 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 FBI, spelled F-B-I, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Federal Bureau of Investigation, die Ermittlungsbehörde der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #9,189 in German

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "FBI"?
"FBI" is spelled F-B-I. The IPA pronunciation is [ɛfbiːˈʔaɪ̯].
What does "FBI" mean?
As an abbrev, "FBI" means: Federal Bureau of Investigation, die Ermittlungsbehörde der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika
What words are commonly confused with "FBI"?
"FBI" is commonly confused with "FC", "fi", "FH". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "FBI"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "FBI" is [ɛfbiːˈʔaɪ̯]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "FBI" come from?
"FBI" 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 F 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.