Paraffin

[paʁaˈfiːn]

/[paʁaˈfiːn]/ noun

The verdict

“Paraffin” is uncommon German (frequency #89,394 among 3,409 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#89,394
frequency rank, German
3,409
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - wachsähnlicher, brennbarer Stoff

Corpus desk

Index DE-paraffin · Paraffin · German

Paraffin · rank #89,394 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #89,394
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,409
  • PHOTO-FINISH Panoramen

Nearest frequency peer: Panoramen (-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.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „Paraffin“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „Paraffin“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Paraffin
PropertyValue
HeadwordParaffin
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[paʁaˈfiːn]
Letters8
Frequency rank#89,394
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „Paraffin“ im Deutschen

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).Paraffinfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Panoramen“ (#89,393), „parasitäre“ (#89,395), „Panoptikum“ (#89,392). Unter 3,409 „P“-Lemmata liegt „Paraffin“ bei #89,394. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Paraffin is uncommon German at frequency #89,394 among 3,409 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [paʁaˈfiːn]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "wachsähnlicher, brennbarer Stoff".

No generated misspelling entries exist for Paraffin in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is Paraffin, spelled P-A-R-A-F-F-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    wachsähnlicher, brennbarer Stoff

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. „Als sie merkte, daß Gustav sie anstarrte, erklärte sie ihm sanft, als spreche sie zu einem Kind, sie wäre nicht sicher gewesen, ob die Tonbänder brennbar seien, und habe sie deshalb mit Paraffin tränken müssen.“
  2. „Der Geist - oder was immer im Dunkeln umhergeschwebt war - hatte seine Hände in Paraffin getaucht und einen Abdruck hinterlassen.“

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 "Paraffin"?
"Paraffin" is spelled P-A-R-A-F-F-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is [paʁaˈfiːn].
What does "Paraffin" mean?
As a noun, "Paraffin" means: wachsähnlicher, brennbarer Stoff
How do you pronounce "Paraffin"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Paraffin" is [paʁaˈfiːn]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Paraffin" come from?
"Paraffin" 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.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Paraffin", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list