Nils

/[niːls]/ name

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#7,088

in German word usage

Misspellings

6

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

Nils is aGermanname. It means: männlicher Vorname Pronounced [niːls]. It ranks #7,088 in German word frequency. Often confused with NS and NL.

Key facts for Nils
PropertyValue
HeadwordNils
LanguageGerman
Part of speechName
IPA[niːls]
Letters4
Frequency rank#7,088
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of Nils in German word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for Nils is 4 letters long, classified as aname, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [niːls]. Corpus data places it at rank #7,088 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "männlicher Vorname".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for Nils, with forms such as "inls", "nills", and "nilss". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "NS", "NL", "nix", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

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. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is Nils, spelled N-I-L-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    männlicher Vorname

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: inls,nills,nilss,nisl,nlis,nnils

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for Nils

Misspelling Variants of "Nils"

inls4nills5nilss5nisl4nlis4nnils5
Misspelling Variants of "Nils"

Frequency rank: #7,088 in German

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Nils"?
"Nils" is spelled N-I-L-S. The IPA pronunciation is [niːls].
What does "Nils" mean?
As a name, "Nils" means: männlicher Vorname
What words are commonly confused with "Nils"?
"Nils" is commonly confused with "NS", "NL", "nix". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "Nils"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Nils" is [niːls]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Nils" come from?
"Nils" 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.

Nearby German words

Other entries that begin with the letter N in our German index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.