penguin

[…]

/[…]/ noun

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

The verdict

“penguin” is uncommon German (frequency #55,601 among 3,409 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#55,601
frequency rank, German
3,409
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - flugunfähiger Seevogel: Pinguin

Corpus desk

Index DE-penguin · penguin · German

penguin · rank #55,601 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #55,601
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,409
  • PHOTO-FINISH pelikan

Nearest frequency peer: pelikan (-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 „penguin“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for penguin
PropertyValue
Headwordpenguin
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[…]
Letters7
Frequency rank#55,601
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „penguin“ im Deutschen

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

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

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „pelikan“ (#55,600), „Penne“ (#55,602), „peck“ (#55,599). Unter 3,409 „P“-Lemmata liegt „penguin“ bei #55,601. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

penguin is uncommon German at frequency #55,601 among 3,409 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed […]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "flugunfähiger Seevogel: Pinguin".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for penguin, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct German form is penguin, spelled P-E-N-G-U-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    flugunfähiger Seevogel: Pinguin

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. The penguins huddled together for warmth in the Antarctic winter.

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 "penguin"?
"penguin" is spelled P-E-N-G-U-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is […].
What does "penguin" mean?
As a noun, "penguin" means: flugunfähiger Seevogel: Pinguin
How do you pronounce "penguin"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "penguin" is […]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "penguin" come from?
"penguin" 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.

Similar German words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

pelikan#55,600Pfründe#55,608Obstbau#55,587Polypen#55,616

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list