FSME

abbrev

The verdict

“FSME” is uncommon German (frequency #69,236 among 3,474 “F” headwords), classed as an abbreviation. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#69,236
frequency rank, German
3,474
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Frühsommer-Meningoenzephalitis

Corpus desk

Index DE-fsme · FSME · German

FSME · rank #69,236 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #69,236
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,474
  • PHOTO-FINISH frivole

Nearest frequency peer: frivole (-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 „FSME“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for FSME
PropertyValue
HeadwordFSME
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAbbreviation
Letters4
Frequency rank#69,236
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „FSME“ im Deutschen

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).FSMEfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „frivole“ (#69,235), „fundamentalistischen“ (#69,237), „Fritteuse“ (#69,234). Unter 3,474 „F“-Lemmata liegt „FSME“ bei #69,236. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

FSME is uncommon German at frequency #69,236 among 3,474 “F” headwords, classed as anabbreviation. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Frühsommer-Meningoenzephalitis".

FSME has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is FSME, spelled F-S-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Frühsommer-Meningoenzephalitis

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. „Zu den beiden am häufigsten durch Zecken übertragenen Krankheiten zählt neben der Lyme-Borreliose die Frühsommer-Meningoenzephalitis (FSME).“
  2. „FSME (Frühsommer-Meningoenzephalitis) ist eine zum Teil schwer verlaufende Virusinfektion des Gehirns und des Rückenmarks, die durch Zecken übertragen wird.“

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 "FSME"?
"FSME" is spelled F-S-M-E.
What does "FSME" mean?
As an abbreviation, "FSME" means: Frühsommer-Meningoenzephalitis
What language does "FSME" come from?
"FSME" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "FSME", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list