Schattenspiel
[ˈʃatn̩ˌʃpiːl]
The verdict
“Schattenspiel” is uncommon German (frequency #78,500 among 107,600 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #78,500
- frequency rank, German
- 107,600
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - eine Form des Theaters, bei der eine Geschichte erzählt wird, indem Schatten auf eine beleuchtete Fläche, oft eine weiße Leinwand, geworfen wird
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Schattenspiel |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈʃatn̩ˌʃpiːl] |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #78,500 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Schattenspiel” sits in German frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Schattenspiel is uncommon German at frequency #78,500 among 107,600 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈʃatn̩ˌʃpiːl]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for Schattenspiel in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No documented word history exists 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 Schattenspiel, spelled S-C-H-A-T-T-E-N-S-P-I-E-L.
Definition
- 1eine Form des Theaters, bei der eine Geschichte erzählt wird, indem Schatten auf eine beleuchtete Fläche, oft eine weiße Leinwand, geworfen wird
- 2der mitunter lebhafte Wechsel von Schatten und einfallendem Licht, besonders in Bezug auf Kontraste
Synonyms
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 “Schattenspiel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is S-C-H-A-T-T-E-N-S-P-I-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈʃatn̩ˌʃpiːl] (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.