fehlgehen
[ˈfeːlˌɡeːən]
The verdict
“fehlgehen” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - sich täuschen
Corpus desk
Index DE-fehlgehen · fehlgehen · German
fehlgehen · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" 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 | fehlgehen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ˈfeːlˌɡeːən] |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „fehlgehen“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
fehlgehen is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed [ˈfeːlˌɡeːən]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
fehlgehen has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is fehlgehen, spelled F-E-H-L-G-E-H-E-N.
Definition
- 1sich täuschen
- 2beim Schreiten/Laufen den falschen Weg einschlagen
- 3nicht funktionieren, nicht den Zweck erfüllen oder das Ziel erreichen
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fehlgehen appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Gehe ich fehl in der Annahme, dass es noch keinen Bürgen gibt?
Mitten in der Siedlung sind wir fehlgegangen, links statt rechts und dann deshalb zu spät gekommen.
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.