Galgenhumor
[ˈɡalɡn̩huˌmoːɐ̯]
The verdict
“Galgenhumor” is uncommon German (frequency #68,243 among 54,401 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #68,243
- frequency rank, German
- 54,401
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - bitterer, nicht zuerst unterhaltsamer, vorgespielter, erkennbar aufgesetzter Humor, mit dem man eine unangenehme Situation meistern möchte; ein Humor, bei dem man „trotzdem lacht“
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Galgenhumor |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈɡalɡn̩huˌmoːɐ̯] |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #68,243 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Galgenhumor” sits in German frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Galgenhumor is uncommon German at frequency #68,243 among 54,401 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈɡalɡn̩huˌmoːɐ̯]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "bitterer, nicht zuerst unterhaltsamer, vorgespielter, erkennbar aufgesetzter Humor, mit dem man eine unangenehme Situation meistern möchte; ein Humor, bei dem man „trotzdem lacht“".
Galgenhumor doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is Galgenhumor, spelled G-A-L-G-E-N-H-U-M-O-R.
Definition
- 1bitterer, nicht zuerst unterhaltsamer, vorgespielter, erkennbar aufgesetzter Humor, mit dem man eine unangenehme Situation meistern möchte; ein Humor, bei dem man „trotzdem lacht“
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
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
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Using “Galgenhumor”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is G-A-L-G-E-N-H-U-M-O-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈɡalɡn̩huˌmoːɐ̯] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Other uncommon German words near this rank
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.