Nadelöhr
[ˈnaːdl̩ˌʔøːɐ̯]
The verdict
“Nadelöhr” is uncommon German (frequency #59,027 among 26,919 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,027
- frequency rank, German
- 26,919
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - kreisförmige oder auch ovale Öffnung am Ende einer Nähnadel
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Nadelöhr |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈnaːdl̩ˌʔøːɐ̯] |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #59,027 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Nadelöhr” sits in German frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Nadelöhr is uncommon German at frequency #59,027 among 26,919 “N” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈnaːdl̩ˌʔøːɐ̯]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Nadelöhr has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No explicit etymology string is stored 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 Nadelöhr, spelled N-A-D-E-L-Ö-H-R.
Definition
- 1kreisförmige oder auch ovale Öffnung am Ende einer Nähnadel
- 2Engstelle, beispielsweise im Straßenverkehr
Synonyms
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
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Using “Nadelöhr”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is N-A-D-E-L-Ö-H-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈnaːdl̩ˌʔøːɐ̯] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Other uncommon German words near this rank
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.