mäh

[mɛː]

/[mɛː]/ intj

The verdict

“mäh” is uncommon German (frequency #69,522 among 3,571 “M” headwords), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#69,522
frequency rank, German
3,571
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Tierlaut des Schafes und der Ziege

Corpus desk

Index DE-mah · mäh · German

mäh · rank #69,522 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #69,522
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,571
  • PHOTO-FINISH Musikgeschäft

Nearest frequency peer: Musikgeschäft (-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 „mäh“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for mäh
PropertyValue
Headwordmäh
LanguageGerman
Part of speechInterjection
IPA[mɛː]
Letters3
Frequency rank#69,522
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „mäh“ im Deutschen

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.mähfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Musikgeschäft“ (#69,521), „Mülldeponie“ (#69,524), „Mountainbikes“ (#69,519). Unter 3,571 „M“-Lemmata liegt „mäh“ bei #69,522. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

mäh is uncommon German at frequency #69,522 among 3,571 “M” headwords, classed as aninterjection, transcribed [mɛː]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Tierlaut des Schafes und der Ziege".

mäh has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is mäh, spelled M-Ä-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Tierlaut des Schafes und der Ziege

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. „Abends, als es Zeit war heimzugehen, fragte er [der älteste Sohn]: ‚Ziege, bist du satt?‘ Die Ziege antwortete: ‚Ich bin so satt, ich mag kein Blatt: mäh! mäh!‘ “

Synonyms

Antonyms

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); 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 "mäh"?
"mäh" is spelled M-Ä-H. The IPA pronunciation is [mɛː].
What does "mäh" mean?
As an interjection, "mäh" means: Tierlaut des Schafes und der Ziege
How do you pronounce "mäh"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mäh" is [mɛː]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mäh" come from?
"mäh" 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 "mäh", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list