schürfen

[ˈʃʏʁfn̩]

/[ˈʃʏʁfn̩]/ verb

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

The verdict

“schürfen” is uncommon German (frequency #76,148 among 8,027 “S” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#76,148
frequency rank, German
8,027
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bodenschätze abbauen, fördern

Corpus desk

Index DE-schurfen · schürfen · German

schürfen · rank #76,148 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #76,148
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,027
  • PHOTO-FINISH Schäferhunde

Nearest frequency peer: Schäferhunde (-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 „schürfen“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for schürfen
PropertyValue
Headwordschürfen
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[ˈʃʏʁfn̩]
Letters8
Frequency rank#76,148
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „schürfen“ im Deutschen

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

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Schäferhunde“ (#76,147), „scientist“ (#76,149), „SdK“ (#76,150). Unter 8,027 „S“-Lemmata liegt „schürfen“ bei #76,148. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

schürfen is uncommon German at frequency #76,148 among 8,027 “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

  1. 1
    Bodenschätze abbauen, fördern
  2. 2
    die Haut durch Reibung an einer rauen Oberfläche verletzen
  3. 3
    gründlich nachforschen
  4. 4
    ein schabendes Geräusch erzeugen, hervorrufen

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Viele Privatleute schürften während des Goldrausches nach wertvollem Gold.
  2. „Im Übrigen schürften einige Studenten selbst in den Minen, um ihre Schulden zu begleichen.“

This word in other languages

prospect(English)

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 "schürfen"?
"schürfen" is spelled S-C-H-Ü-R-F-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈʃʏʁfn̩].
What does "schürfen" mean?
As a verb, "schürfen" means: Bodenschätze abbauen, fördern
How do you pronounce "schürfen"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "schürfen" is [ˈʃʏʁfn̩]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "schürfen" come from?
"schürfen" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "schürfen", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Seereise#76,151segments#76,153scharren#76,122sapphire#76,118

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list