old

[əʊld]

/[əʊld]/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“old” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #6,574 in German word frequency and used as an adjective.

#6,574
frequency rank, German
3
letters
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Lebenszeitspanne beziehend: alt

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

old vs on
33% similar
old vs OP
0% similar
old vs or
33% similar

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

Key facts for old
PropertyValue
Headwordold
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdjective
IPA[əʊld]
Letters3
Frequency rank#6,574
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “old” sits in German frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). old lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for old is 3 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [əʊld]. Corpus data places it at rank #6,574 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Lebenszeitspanne beziehend: alt".

No misspelling variants are generated for old in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "on", "OP", "or", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct German form is old, spelled O-L-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lebenszeitspanne beziehend: alt

Antonyms

youngnew

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 "old"?
"old" is spelled O-L-D. The IPA pronunciation is [əʊld].
What does "old" mean?
As an adjective, "old" means: Lebenszeitspanne beziehend: alt
What words are commonly confused with "old"?
"old" is commonly confused with "on", "OP", "or". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "old"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "old" is [əʊld]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "old" come from?
"old" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Using “old”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct German spelling is O-L-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as [əʊld] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “on” - see the side-by-side comparison. old vs on
  • 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list