gelingen
[ɡəˈlɪŋən]
The verdict
“gelingen” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #5,836 in German word frequency and used as a verb.
- #5,836
- frequency rank, German
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - etwas erfolgreich zu Ende bringen, erfolgreich zustande kommen
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gelingen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ɡəˈlɪŋən] |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #5,836 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gelingen” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for gelingen is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ɡəˈlɪŋən]. Corpus data places it at rank #5,836 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "etwas erfolgreich zu Ende bringen, erfolgreich zustande kommen".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for gelingen, with forms such as "eglingen", "geilngen", and "gelignen". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "gingen", "gelingt", "geringe", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is gelingen, spelled G-E-L-I-N-G-E-N.
Definition
- 1etwas erfolgreich zu Ende bringen, erfolgreich zustande kommen
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eglingen,geilngen,gelignen,gelinegn,gelingenn,gelinggen,gelingne,gelinngen,gellingen,gelnigen,ggelingen,gleingen
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gelingen - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "gelingen"?
What does "gelingen" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "gelingen"?
How do you pronounce "gelingen"?
What language does "gelingen" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “gelingen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is G-E-L-I-N-G-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ɡəˈlɪŋən] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “gingen” - see the side-by-side comparison. gelingen vs gingen
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
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.