Glühwürmchen
[ˈɡlyːˌvʏʁmçən]
The verdict
“Glühwürmchen” is uncommon German (frequency #65,295 among 54,401 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,295
- frequency rank, German
- 54,401
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - (in zahlreichen Arten vor allem in wärmeren Weltregionen vorkommender) Käfer, der durch Oxidation von Luciferin kaltes Licht in seinen Leuchtorganen erzeugen kann, die sich auf der Bauchseite des H...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Glühwürmchen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈɡlyːˌvʏʁmçən] |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #65,295 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Glühwürmchen” sits in German frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Glühwürmchen is uncommon German at frequency #65,295 among 54,401 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈɡlyːˌvʏʁmçən]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "(in zahlreichen Arten vor allem in wärmeren Weltregionen vorkommender) Käfer, der durch Oxidation von Luciferin kaltes Licht in seinen Leuchtorganen erzeugen kann, die sich auf der Bauchseite des H...".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for Glühwürmchen, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 Glühwürmchen, spelled G-L-Ü-H-W-Ü-R-M-C-H-E-N.
Definition
- 1(in zahlreichen Arten vor allem in wärmeren Weltregionen vorkommender) Käfer, der durch Oxidation von Luciferin kaltes Licht in seinen Leuchtorganen erzeugen kann, die sich auf der Bauchseite des Hinterleibs befinden und innerartlich der gegenseitigen Kommunikation dienen (Lampyridae)
Synonyms
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 “Glühwürmchen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is G-L-Ü-H-W-Ü-R-M-C-H-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈɡlyːˌvʏʁmçən] (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.