ppm
[peːpeːˈʔɛm]
The verdict
“ppm” is a moderately-common German word, ranked #40,761 in German word frequency and used as an abbreviation.
- #40,761
- frequency rank, German
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Mengeneinheit/Quotient, die die Konzentration eines Stoffs in einem anderen Stoff angibt; für Englisch parts per million, für Anzahl Teilchen in einer Million Teilchen; 1 ppm = 0,001 ‰ = 0,0001 %; ...
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 | ppm |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Abbreviation |
| IPA | [peːpeːˈʔɛm] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #40,761 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ppm” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for ppm is 3 letters long, classified as an abbreviation, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [peːpeːˈʔɛm]. Corpus data places it at rank #40,761 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Mengeneinheit/Quotient, die die Konzentration eines Stoffs in einem anderen Stoff angibt; für Englisch parts per million, für Anzahl Teilchen in einer Million Teilchen; 1 ppm = 0,001 ‰ = 0,0001 %; ...".
ppm has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PS", "Pr", "PV", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, 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 ppm, spelled P-P-M.
Definition
- 1Mengeneinheit/Quotient, die die Konzentration eines Stoffs in einem anderen Stoff angibt; für Englisch parts per million, für Anzahl Teilchen in einer Million Teilchen; 1 ppm = 0,001 ‰ = 0,0001 %; Veranschaulichung: 1 ppm = etwa 5 Wassertropfen (á 0,05 ml) auf eine Badewanne mit Wasser (á 250 l)
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 “ppm”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is P-P-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [peːpeːˈʔɛm] (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. ppm 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.