Geiselhaft

[ˈɡaɪ̯zl̩ˌhaft]

/[ˈɡaɪ̯zl̩ˌhaft]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“Geiselhaft” is uncommon German (frequency #70,298 among 5,117 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,298
frequency rank, German
5,117
“G” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - (von offizieller Instanz veranlasste) Verwahrung einer oder mehrerer Personen, die als Geiseln gefangen gehalten werden

Corpus desk

Index DE-geiselhaft · Geiselhaft · German

Geiselhaft · rank #70,298 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,298
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,117
  • PHOTO-FINISH gehäkelt

Nearest frequency peer: gehäkelt (-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 „Geiselhaft“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Geiselhaft
PropertyValue
HeadwordGeiselhaft
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈɡaɪ̯zl̩ˌhaft]
Letters10
Frequency rank#70,298
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „Geiselhaft“ im Deutschen

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

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

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „gehäkelt“ (#70,297), „gekürzten“ (#70,299), „Gegentoren“ (#70,296). Unter 5,117 „G“-Lemmata liegt „Geiselhaft“ bei #70,298. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Geiselhaft is uncommon German at frequency #70,298 among 5,117 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈɡaɪ̯zl̩ˌhaft]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for Geiselhaft in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is Geiselhaft, spelled G-E-I-S-E-L-H-A-F-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    (von offizieller Instanz veranlasste) Verwahrung einer oder mehrerer Personen, die als Geiseln gefangen gehalten werden
  2. 2
    unbeabsichtigte, nicht gewollte Teilhabe (einer Person, einer Gruppe, eines Volkes oder dergleichen) an der Verantwortung für eine Situation, die man nicht selbst verschuldet hat und die aus eigenen Kräften nicht zu ändern ist

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. „Im Sommer 2006 hielt dieses Kommando die ganze Stadt in Geiselhaft.“
  2. „Nach 547 Tagen Geiselhaft sind in Afghanistan die beiden französischen Journalisten Hervé Ghesquière und Stéphane Taponier freigekommen.“

Antonyms

BeugehaftSchutzhaftUntersuchungshaftU-HaftVorbeugehaftSippenhaftDunkelhaftEinzelhaftFestungshaftKerkerhaft

This word in other languages

otage(Français)

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 "Geiselhaft"?
"Geiselhaft" is spelled G-E-I-S-E-L-H-A-F-T. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈɡaɪ̯zl̩ˌhaft].
What does "Geiselhaft" mean?
As a noun, "Geiselhaft" means: (von offizieller Instanz veranlasste) Verwahrung einer oder mehrerer Personen, die als Geiseln gefangen gehalten werden
How do you pronounce "Geiselhaft"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Geiselhaft" is [ˈɡaɪ̯zl̩ˌhaft]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Geiselhaft" come from?
"Geiselhaft" 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 "Geiselhaft", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Gegentoren#70,296gelassenen#70,300gefesselte#70,293Gasleitung#70,291

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list