pignus
The verdict
“pignus” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pfand, Unterpfand, Faustpfand
Corpus desk
Index DE-pignus · pignus · German
pignus · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pignus |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „pignus“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
pignus is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for pignus, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. 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.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is pignus, spelled P-I-G-N-U-S.
Definition
- 1Pfand, Unterpfand, Faustpfand
- 2Person, die als Pfand dient; Geisel
- 3Wettbetrag
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how pignus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
„nunc hoc me orare a vobis iussit Iuppiter / ut conquistores singula in subsellia / eant per totam caveam spectatoribus, / si quoi favitores delegatos viderint, / ut is in cavea pignus capiantur togae;“ (Plaut. Amph. prol. 64–68)
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.