life

[laɪf]

/[laɪf]/ noun

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

The verdict

“life” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #2,842) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#2,842
frequency rank, German
2,640
“L” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Leben: die Eigenschaft lebendiger Wesen, die den Toten und den anorganischen Sachen fehlt

Corpus desk

Index DE-life · life · German

life · rank #2,842 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,842
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,640
  • PHOTO-FINISH liebsten

Nearest frequency peer: liebsten (-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.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „life“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „life“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

life vs LTE
0% similar
life vs lin
50% similar
life vs liv
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for life
PropertyValue
Headwordlife
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[laɪf]
Letters4
Frequency rank#2,842
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „life“

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).lifeliegt auf dieser Marke:

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „liebsten“ (#2,841), „LKW“ (#2,843), „Lehre“ (#2,840). Unter 2,640 „L“-Lemmata liegt „life“ bei #2,842. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for life is neighbouring look-alikes ("LTE", "lin", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [laɪf]. Frequency #2,842 among 2,640 “L” headwords. 9 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for life, with forms such as "ilfe", "lfie", and "liffe". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "LTE", "lin", "liv", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct German form is life, spelled L-I-F-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Leben: die Eigenschaft lebendiger Wesen, die den Toten und den anorganischen Sachen fehlt
  2. 2
    Leben: die Zeit, in der jemand lebt; persönliche Laufbahn, mit der Geburt beginnend und mit dem Tod endend
  3. 3
    Lebenszeit; persönliche Laufbahn, mit einem (bestimmten) Ereignis beginnend und mit dem Tod endend
  4. 4
    (bestimmte) Lebensart, Lebensstil
  5. 5
    das, was jemandem am wichtigsten ist
  6. 6
    Leben, besonders Menschenleben: Lebewesen, Mensch (das beziehungsweise der lebt)
  7. 7
    Lebensgeschichte: Biografie (Biographie)
  8. 8
    Laufzeit, Lebenszeit: die Zeit, die ein Gegenstand hat, bis er unbrauchbar wird
  9. 9
    Versuch, besonders ein verbleibender Versuch, der nach einem virtuellen Tod noch zur Verfügung steht

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how life appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Having experienced both, the vampire decided that he preferred (un)death to life.
  2. He had a happy life.

Synonyms

statealivelifespanworldsoulbiographylifespan

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ilfe
  • lfie
  • liffe
  • llife

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of life - 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.

ilfe2lfie2liffe1llife1
Edit distance from "life"

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 "life"?
"life" is spelled L-I-F-E. The IPA pronunciation is [laɪf].
What does "life" mean?
As a noun, "life" means: Leben: die Eigenschaft lebendiger Wesen, die den Toten und den anorganischen Sachen fehlt
What words are commonly confused with "life"?
"life" is commonly confused with "LTE", "lin", "liv". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "life"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "life" is [laɪf]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "life" come from?
"life" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "life", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

love#2,844Nazi#2,849Papa#2,851Hals#2,830

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list