schürfen
[ˈʃʏʁfn̩]
The verdict
“schürfen” is uncommon German (frequency #76,148 among 107,600 “S” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,148
- frequency rank, German
- 107,600
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Bodenschätze abbauen, fördern
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | schürfen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ˈʃʏʁfn̩] |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #76,148 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “schürfen” sits in German frequency
Rare enough to double-check
schürfen is uncommon German at frequency #76,148 among 107,600 “S” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed [ˈʃʏʁfn̩]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for schürfen, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is schürfen, spelled S-C-H-Ü-R-F-E-N.
Definition
- 1Bodenschätze abbauen, fördern
- 2die Haut durch Reibung an einer rauen Oberfläche verletzen
- 3gründlich nachforschen
- 4ein schabendes Geräusch erzeugen, hervorrufen
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 “schürfen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is S-C-H-Ü-R-F-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈʃʏʁfn̩] (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.