Pest
[pɛst]
The verdict
“Pest” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #8,763 in German word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,763
- frequency rank, German
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - hochgradig ansteckende Krankheit, die durch das Bakterium Yersinia pestis verursacht wird.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Pest |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [pɛst] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #8,763 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Pest” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for Pest is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [pɛst]. Corpus data places it at rank #8,763 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for Pest, with forms such as "epst", "pesst", and "pestt". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PS", "Pt", "psa", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct German form is Pest, spelled P-E-S-T.
Definition
- 1hochgradig ansteckende Krankheit, die durch das Bakterium Yersinia pestis verursacht wird.
- 2konkrete Pestepidemie, in einem bestimmten Zeitraum und bestimmtem Gebiet
- 3eine Reihe von Tierkrankheiten, zum Beispiel die Geflügelpest
- 4Zinnpest, die allotrope Umwandlung von Zinn
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: epst,pesst,pestt,pets,ppest,pset
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Pest - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "Pest"?
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Using “Pest”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is P-E-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [pɛst] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “PS” - see the side-by-side comparison. Pest vs PS
- 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.