Kretin
[kʁeˈtɛ̃ː]
The verdict
“Kretin” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - jemand, der an Kretinismus leidet
Corpus desk
Index DE-kretin · Kretin · German
Kretin · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- 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 | Kretin |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [kʁeˈtɛ̃ː] |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „Kretin“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
Kretin is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed [kʁeˈtɛ̃ː]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Kretin, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is Kretin, spelled K-R-E-T-I-N.
Definition
- 1jemand, der an Kretinismus leidet
- 2unfähiger Dummkopf, Idiot
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Kretin appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Dies hielt zum damaligen Zeitpunkt die Forschungsreisenden nicht davon ab, sich die Kretins zu Forschungszwecken heranzuziehen.
„Unter mir, im Erdgeschoß, haust die alte Scholl mit ihrem Kretin von Sohn.“
This word in other languages
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.