orphan

/[ˈɔːfn]/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#70,641

in German word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

0

similar word pairs

orphan is aGermannoun. It means: eine (minderjährige) Person, deren Eltern (im seltenen Sprachgebrauch auch nur ein Elternteil) gestorben sind Pronounced [ˈɔːfn].

Key facts for orphan
PropertyValue
Headwordorphan
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈɔːfn]
Letters6
Frequency rank#70,641
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for orphan is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈɔːfn]. Corpus data places it at rank #70,641 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for orphan in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable German patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

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 orphan, spelled O-R-P-H-A-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    eine (minderjährige) Person, deren Eltern (im seltenen Sprachgebrauch auch nur ein Elternteil) gestorben sind
  2. 2
    ein junges mutterloses Tier
  3. 3
    eine alleinstehende Zeile am Ende einer Druckseite, die gleichzeitig die erste Zeile eines neuen Absatzes ist

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #70,641 in German

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "orphan"?
"orphan" is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈɔːfn].
What does "orphan" mean?
As a noun, "orphan" means: eine (minderjährige) Person, deren Eltern (im seltenen Sprachgebrauch auch nur ein Elternteil) gestorben sind
How do you pronounce "orphan"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "orphan" is [ˈɔːfn]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "orphan" come from?
"orphan" 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 O 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.