pun

[pʌn]

/[pʌn]/ noun

The verdict

“pun” is uncommon German (frequency #61,849 among 3,409 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,849
frequency rank, German
3,409
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Wortspiel, das auf dem ähnlichen Klang zweier Wörter beruht

Corpus desk

Index DE-pun · pun · German

pun · rank #61,849 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #61,849
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,409
  • PHOTO-FINISH präparierten

Nearest frequency peer: präparierten (-1 rank slots)

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.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „pun“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „pun“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for pun
PropertyValue
Headwordpun
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[pʌn]
Letters3
Frequency rank#61,849
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „pun“ im Deutschen

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).punfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „präparierten“ (#61,848), „punto“ (#61,850), „Prozesskostenhilfe“ (#61,847). Unter 3,409 „P“-Lemmata liegt „pun“ bei #61,849. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pun is uncommon German at frequency #61,849 among 3,409 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [pʌn]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Wortspiel, das auf dem ähnlichen Klang zweier Wörter beruht".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for pun, a sign its spelling follows regular German conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct German form is pun, spelled P-U-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Wortspiel, das auf dem ähnlichen Klang zweier Wörter beruht

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how pun appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. „I think our puns have angered the gods.“

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 "pun"?
"pun" is spelled P-U-N. The IPA pronunciation is [pʌn].
What does "pun" mean?
As a noun, "pun" means: Wortspiel, das auf dem ähnlichen Klang zweier Wörter beruht
How do you pronounce "pun"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pun" is [pʌn]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pun" come from?
"pun" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pun", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list