Schnörkel

[ˈʃnœʁkl̩]

/[ˈʃnœʁkl̩]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“Schnörkel” is uncommon German (frequency #82,102 among 8,027 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#82,102
frequency rank, German
8,027
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - geschwungene Verzierung

Corpus desk

Index DE-schnorkel · Schnörkel · German

Schnörkel · rank #82,102 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #82,102
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,027
  • PHOTO-FINISH schnorren

Nearest frequency peer: schnorren (-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 „Schnörkel“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Schnörkel
PropertyValue
HeadwordSchnörkel
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈʃnœʁkl̩]
Letters9
Frequency rank#82,102
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „Schnörkel“ im Deutschen

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.Schnörkelfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „schnorren“ (#82,101), „Schola“ (#82,103), „Schnorchel“ (#82,100). Unter 8,027 „S“-Lemmata liegt „Schnörkel“ bei #82,102. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Schnörkel is uncommon German at frequency #82,102 among 8,027 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈʃnœʁkl̩]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Schnörkel has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is Schnörkel, spelled S-C-H-N-Ö-R-K-E-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    geschwungene Verzierung
  2. 2
    schneckenförmige Verzierung der Geigen

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Der Bilderrahmen war voller Schnörkel.
  2. „Mit dem Finger malte er Schnörkel auf die Theke.“

Synonyms

Schnecke

This word in other languages

curlicue(English)fioriture(Français)

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 "Schnörkel"?
"Schnörkel" is spelled S-C-H-N-Ö-R-K-E-L. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈʃnœʁkl̩].
What does "Schnörkel" mean?
As a noun, "Schnörkel" means: geschwungene Verzierung
How do you pronounce "Schnörkel"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Schnörkel" is [ˈʃnœʁkl̩]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Schnörkel" come from?
"Schnörkel" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "Schnörkel", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

schnorren#82,101schmiegen#82,098schriller#82,106schulisch#82,112

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list