gelten
[ˈɡɛltn̩]
The verdict
“gelten” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #1,353 in German word frequency and used as a verb.
- #1,353
- frequency rank, German
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - gültig, verbindlich sein
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 | gelten |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ˈɡɛltn̩] |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,353 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gelten” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for gelten is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈɡɛltn̩]. Corpus data places it at rank #1,353 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for gelten, with forms such as "eglten", "geletn", and "gellten". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "guten", "getan", "geste", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, 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 gelten, spelled G-E-L-T-E-N.
Definition
- 1gültig, verbindlich sein
- 2wert sein, einen bestimmten Wert haben
- 3einen bestimmten Ruf haben, angesehen werden als
- 4für jemanden/ etwas bestimmt sein, auf jemanden/ etwas gerichtet sein
- 5in der Wendung „es gilt (etwas)“: es kommt auf etwas an
- 6in der Wendung „gelten lassen“: zulassen, dulden, als gültig betrachten
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eglten,geletn,gellten,geltenn,geltne,geltten,getlen,ggelten,gleten
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gelten - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “gelten”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is G-E-L-T-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈɡɛltn̩] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “guten” - see the side-by-side comparison. gelten vs guten
- 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.