hyphen

[ˈhaɪf(ə)n]

/[ˈhaɪf(ə)n]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“hyphen” is uncommon German (frequency #75,787 among 3,372 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#75,787
frequency rank, German
3,372
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bindestrich

Corpus desk

Index DE-hyphen · hyphen · German

hyphen · rank #75,787 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #75,787
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,372
  • PHOTO-FINISH huschen

Nearest frequency peer: huschen (-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 „hyphen“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for hyphen
PropertyValue
Headwordhyphen
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈhaɪf(ə)n]
Letters6
Frequency rank#75,787
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „hyphen“ im Deutschen

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).hyphenfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „huschen“ (#75,786), „hungernde“ (#75,784), „IKK“ (#75,790). Unter 3,372 „H“-Lemmata liegt „hyphen“ bei #75,787. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

hyphen is uncommon German at frequency #75,787 among 3,372 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈhaɪf(ə)n]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Bindestrich".

hyphen doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored 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 hyphen, spelled H-Y-P-H-E-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Bindestrich

This word in other languages

tiret(Français)

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 "hyphen"?
"hyphen" is spelled H-Y-P-H-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈhaɪf(ə)n].
What does "hyphen" mean?
As a noun, "hyphen" means: Bindestrich
How do you pronounce "hyphen"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hyphen" is [ˈhaɪf(ə)n]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "hyphen" come from?
"hyphen" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "hyphen", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

hornet#75,779Hobart#75,765Henner#75,757hallte#75,743

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list