Kōan
[…]
The verdict
“Kōan” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - kurze Schilderung in der Art eines zu lösenden Rätsels
Corpus desk
Index DE-koan · Kōan · German
Kōan · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "K" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Kōan |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | […] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „Kōan“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
Kōan is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed […]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "kurze Schilderung in der Art eines zu lösenden Rätsels".
No misspelling variants are generated for Kōan in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct German form is Kōan, spelled K-Ō-A-N.
Definition
- 1kurze Schilderung in der Art eines zu lösenden Rätsels
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Kōan appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Die meisten Kōans scheinen für Laien unlösbar.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.