public
[ˈpʌblɪk]
The verdict
“public” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #5,522 in German word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #5,522
- frequency rank, German
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - öffentlich
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 | public |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | [ˈpʌblɪk] |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #5,522 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “public” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for public is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈpʌblɪk]. Corpus data places it at rank #5,522 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "öffentlich".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for public, with forms such as "pbulic", "ppublic", and "pubblic". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "Pulli", "publik", "Pullis", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is public, spelled P-U-B-L-I-C.
Definition
- 1öffentlich
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: pbulic,ppublic,pubblic,pubilc,publci,publicc,publlic,pulbic,upblic
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of public - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “public”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is P-U-B-L-I-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈpʌblɪk] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Pulli” - see the side-by-side comparison. public vs Pulli
- 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.