NBA

[ɛnbiˈʔɛɪ̯]

/[ɛnbiˈʔɛɪ̯]/ noun

The verdict

“NBA” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #11,103) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#11,103
frequency rank, German
1,954
“N” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - nordamerikanische Basketball-Profiliga; die mit großem Abstand stärkste und populärste Basketball-Liga der Welt

Corpus desk

Index DE-nba · NBA · German

NBA · rank #11,103 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #11,103
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,954
  • PHOTO-FINISH Nationalspiel…

Nearest frequency peer: Nationalspieler (-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 „NBA“

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

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „NBA“ 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).

NBA vs Ne
33% similar
NBA vs NS
33% similar
NBA vs Nd
33% similar

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

Key facts for NBA
PropertyValue
HeadwordNBA
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ɛnbiˈʔɛɪ̯]
Letters3
Frequency rank#11,103
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „NBA“

Die Häufigkeit läuft von den wenigen Alltagswörtern (links) bis zur langen, seltenen Schwanzseite (rechts).NBAliegt auf dieser Marke:

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

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „Nationalspieler“ (#11,102), „Niederländische“ (#11,104), „nachweislich“ (#11,101). Unter 1,954 „N“-Lemmata liegt „NBA“ bei #11,103. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for NBA is neighbouring look-alikes ("Ne", "NS", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [ɛnbiˈʔɛɪ̯]. Frequency #11,103 among 1,954 “N” headwords. Gloss: "nordamerikanische Basketball-Profiliga; die mit großem Abstand stärkste und populärste Basketball-Liga der Welt".

NBA doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Ne", "NS", "Nd", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is NBA, spelled N-B-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    nordamerikanische Basketball-Profiliga; die mit großem Abstand stärkste und populärste Basketball-Liga der Welt

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. „Kobe Bryant hat die Los Angeles Lakers in der nordamerikanischen Basketballprofiliga NBA mit 43 Punkten zu einem 109:106-Sieg bei den Dallas Mavericks geführt.“
  2. „Kobe hatte sich im April nach 20 Jahren in der nordamerikanischen Profiliga NBA von der Basketball-Bühne verabschiedet.“

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 "NBA"?
"NBA" is spelled N-B-A. The IPA pronunciation is [ɛnbiˈʔɛɪ̯].
What does "NBA" mean?
As a noun, "NBA" means: nordamerikanische Basketball-Profiliga; die mit großem Abstand stärkste und populärste Basketball-Liga der Welt
What words are commonly confused with "NBA"?
"NBA" is commonly confused with "Ne", "NS", "Nd". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "NBA"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "NBA" is [ɛnbiˈʔɛɪ̯]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "NBA" come from?
"NBA" 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 "NBA", 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