Mama
[ˈmama]
The verdict
“Mama” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #1,778 in German word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,778
- frequency rank, German
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Kindersprache, Familiensprache: der weibliche Elternteil
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Mama |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈmama] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,778 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Mama” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for Mama is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈmama]. Corpus data places it at rank #1,778 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Kindersprache, Familiensprache: der weibliche Elternteil".
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for Mama, with forms such as "amma", "maam", and "mmaa". 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, "mm", "man", "may", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is Mama, spelled M-A-M-A.
Definition
- 1Kindersprache, Familiensprache: der weibliche Elternteil
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amma,maam,mmaa,mmama
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Mama - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Using “Mama”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is M-A-M-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈmama] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “mm” - see the side-by-side comparison. Mama vs mm
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.