Schmähwort
[ˈʃmɛːˌvɔʁt]
The verdict
“Schmähwort” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Wort, mit dem die angesprochene Sache oder Person auf verletzende Weise verächtlich gemacht wird
Corpus desk
Index DE-schmahwort · Schmähwort · German
Schmähwort · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-2 2 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 | Schmähwort |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈʃmɛːˌvɔʁt] |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „Schmähwort“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
Schmähwort is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈʃmɛːˌvɔʁt]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for Schmähwort in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 Schmähwort, spelled S-C-H-M-Ä-H-W-O-R-T.
Definition
- 1Wort, mit dem die angesprochene Sache oder Person auf verletzende Weise verächtlich gemacht wird
- 2Ausspruch verletzenden Inhalts
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Schmähwort appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ladendorf (1906) nennt unter anderen „Freigeist“ und „Reaktionär“ als Schmähworte: „Freigeist, ein altes Schmähwort der Ketzer und Religionsverächter…“
Moderne Schmähwörter sind Beschimpfungen wie „Käsköpfe“ und „Spaghettifresser“.
Antonyms
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.