schlechtmachen
[ˈʃlɛçtˌmaxn̩]
The verdict
“schlechtmachen” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Negatives, Unwahres oder Ähnliches über etwas/jemanden sagen (und so eine Schädigung dessen öffentlichen Ansehens/Rufes herbeiführen)
Corpus desk
Index DE-schlechtmachen · schlechtmachen · German
schlechtmachen · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | schlechtmachen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ˈʃlɛçtˌmaxn̩] |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „schlechtmachen“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
schlechtmachen is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed [ˈʃlɛçtˌmaxn̩]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Negatives, Unwahres oder Ähnliches über etwas/jemanden sagen (und so eine Schädigung dessen öffentlichen Ansehens/Rufes herbeiführen)".
Zero misspellings are on record for schlechtmachen in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct German form is schlechtmachen, spelled S-C-H-L-E-C-H-T-M-A-C-H-E-N.
Definition
- 1Negatives, Unwahres oder Ähnliches über etwas/jemanden sagen (und so eine Schädigung dessen öffentlichen Ansehens/Rufes herbeiführen)
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how schlechtmachen appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
„Gehören Sie zu jenen, die sich alles schönreden, oder eher zu denen, die rückwirkend alles schlechtmachen?“
„Er sei über Jahre hinweg wegen seiner Jeans schlechtgemacht worden, beklagte sich Obama offensichtlich augenzwinkernd in der Show «On Air with Ryan Seacrest».“
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.