knife

[naɪf]

/[naɪf]/ noun

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

The verdict

“knife” is uncommon German (frequency #53,000 among 4,158 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#53,000
frequency rank, German
4,158
“K” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Hilfsmittel zum Schneiden; Messer

Corpus desk

Index DE-knife · knife · German

knife · rank #53,000 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #53,000
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,158
  • PHOTO-FINISH Kohlenhydraten

Nearest frequency peer: Kohlenhydraten (+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 „knife“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for knife
PropertyValue
Headwordknife
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[naɪf]
Letters5
Frequency rank#53,000
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „knife“ im Deutschen

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

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Kohlenhydraten“ (#53,001), „Kohlenmonoxid“ (#53,002), „kletterten“ (#52,997). Unter 4,158 „K“-Lemmata liegt „knife“ bei #53,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

knife is uncommon German at frequency #53,000 among 4,158 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [naɪf]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Hilfsmittel zum Schneiden; Messer".

No misspelling variants are generated for knife in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular German conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is knife, spelled K-N-I-F-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Hilfsmittel zum Schneiden; Messer

Synonyms

bladejackknifelance

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 "knife"?
"knife" is spelled K-N-I-F-E. The IPA pronunciation is [naɪf].
What does "knife" mean?
As a noun, "knife" means: Hilfsmittel zum Schneiden; Messer
How do you pronounce "knife"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "knife" is [naɪf]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "knife" come from?
"knife" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "knife", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

karas#52,980Jordi#52,970jette#52,969lecke#53,037

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list