kill
[kɪl]
The verdict
“kill” is a moderately-common German word, ranked #14,845 in German word frequency and used as a verb.
- #14,845
- frequency rank, German
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs killen
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 | kill |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [kɪl] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #14,845 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kill” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for kill is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [kɪl]. Corpus data places it at rank #14,845 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs killen".
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for kill, with forms such as "ikll", "kil", and "kkill". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Kim", "Klo", "kit", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented 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 kill, spelled K-I-L-L.
Definition
- 12. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs killen
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ikll,kil,kkill,klil
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of kill - 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 “kill”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is K-I-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [kɪl] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Kim” - see the side-by-side comparison. kill vs Kim
- 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.