hells
[hɛlz]
The verdict
“hells” is a moderately-common German word, ranked #34,160 in German word frequency and used as a noun.
- #34,160
- frequency rank, German
- 5
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Plural des Substantivs hell
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 | hells |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [hɛlz] |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #34,160 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hells” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for hells is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [hɛlz]. Corpus data places it at rank #34,160 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Plural des Substantivs hell".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for hells, with forms such as "ehlls", "hellss", and "helsl". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Helm", "help", "heul", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, 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 hells, spelled H-E-L-L-S.
Definition
- 1Plural des Substantivs hell
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ehlls,hellss,helsl,hhells,hlels
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hells - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “hells”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is H-E-L-L-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [hɛlz] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Helm” - see the side-by-side comparison. hells vs Helm
- 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.