Pontifex
[ˈpɔntiˌfɛks]
The verdict
“Pontifex” is uncommon German (frequency #55,617 among 49,534 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,617
- frequency rank, German
- 49,534
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Priester, Oberpriester im antiken Rom
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Pontifex |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈpɔntiˌfɛks] |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #55,617 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Pontifex” sits in German frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Pontifex is uncommon German at frequency #55,617 among 49,534 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈpɔntiˌfɛks]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Pontifex has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is Pontifex, spelled P-O-N-T-I-F-E-X.
Definition
- 1Priester, Oberpriester im antiken Rom
- 2Pontifex maximus; Papst
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
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Using “Pontifex”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is P-O-N-T-I-F-E-X - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈpɔntiˌfɛks] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Other uncommon German words near this rank
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.