sad
[ˈsad]
The verdict
“sad” is a moderately-common German word, ranked #23,689 in German word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #23,689
- frequency rank, German
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - in diesem Augenblick; jetzt, nun
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 | sad |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | [ˈsad] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #23,689 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sad” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for sad is 3 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈsad]. Corpus data places it at rank #23,689 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "in diesem Augenblick; jetzt, nun".
No generated misspelling entries exist for sad in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "so", "Sc", "SV", 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 its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct German form is sad, spelled S-A-D.
Definition
- 1in diesem Augenblick; jetzt, nun
Synonyms
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 “sad”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is S-A-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈsad] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “so” - see the side-by-side comparison. sad vs so
- 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.