Hofdame

[ˈhoːfˌdaːmə]

/[ˈhoːfˌdaːmə]/ noun

The verdict

“Hofdame” is uncommon German (frequency #70,395 among 3,372 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,395
frequency rank, German
3,372
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - adlige weibliche Person, die an einem Hof (zum Beispiel eines Fürsten) lebt

Corpus desk

Index DE-hofdame · Hofdame · German

Hofdame · rank #70,395 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,395
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,372
  • PHOTO-FINISH Hochzeitstorte

Nearest frequency peer: Hochzeitstorte (-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 „Hofdame“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Hofdame
PropertyValue
HeadwordHofdame
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈhoːfˌdaːmə]
Letters7
Frequency rank#70,395
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „Hofdame“ im Deutschen

Die Häufigkeit läuft von den wenigen Alltagswörtern (links) bis zur langen, seltenen Schwanzseite (rechts).Hofdamefällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Hochzeitstorte“ (#70,394), „Holzschnitten“ (#70,397), „hochbegabt“ (#70,392). Unter 3,372 „H“-Lemmata liegt „Hofdame“ bei #70,395. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Hofdame is uncommon German at frequency #70,395 among 3,372 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈhoːfˌdaːmə]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "adlige weibliche Person, die an einem Hof (zum Beispiel eines Fürsten) lebt".

Hofdame doesn't appear in our generated misspelling 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, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists 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 Hofdame, spelled H-O-F-D-A-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    adlige weibliche Person, die an einem Hof (zum Beispiel eines Fürsten) lebt

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. „Zusammen mit Rostows sollte Marja Ignatjewna Peronskaja auf den Ball gehen, eine Freundin und Verwandte der Gräfin, eine dürre und gelbliche Person, ehemals Hofdame der alten Kaiserin, die jetzt die Rostows als Provizialen in der großen Welt Petersburgs unter ihre Fittiche nahm.“
  2. „Endlich sah er die Königin von der Fährbrücke her auf sich zukommen, eine Hofdame mit ihr, allem Anscheine nach das jüngere Fräulein von Viereck.“

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

How do you spell "Hofdame"?
"Hofdame" is spelled H-O-F-D-A-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈhoːfˌdaːmə].
What does "Hofdame" mean?
As a noun, "Hofdame" means: adlige weibliche Person, die an einem Hof (zum Beispiel eines Fürsten) lebt
How do you pronounce "Hofdame"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Hofdame" is [ˈhoːfˌdaːmə]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Hofdame" come from?
"Hofdame" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "Hofdame", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list