ISBN
[iːʔɛsbeːˈʔɛn]
The verdict
“ISBN” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #6,075 in German word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,075
- frequency rank, German
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - 10- oder 13-stellige Nummer zur eindeutigen Kennzeichnung von Büchern, die seit 1973 jedes Buch erhält
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 | ISBN |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [iːʔɛsbeːˈʔɛn] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #6,075 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ISBN” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for ISBN is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [iːʔɛsbeːˈʔɛn]. Corpus data places it at rank #6,075 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "10- oder 13-stellige Nummer zur eindeutigen Kennzeichnung von Büchern, die seit 1973 jedes Buch erhält".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for ISBN, with forms such as "ibsn", "isbbn", and "isbnn". 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, "ist", "iss", "ISO", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is ISBN, spelled I-S-B-N.
Definition
- 110- oder 13-stellige Nummer zur eindeutigen Kennzeichnung von Büchern, die seit 1973 jedes Buch erhält
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ibsn,isbbn,isbnn,isnb,issbn,sibn
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ISBN - 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 “ISBN”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is I-S-B-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [iːʔɛsbeːˈʔɛn] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ist” - see the side-by-side comparison. ISBN vs ist
- 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.