spät

[ʃpɛːt]

/[ʃpɛːt]/ adj

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

The verdict

“spät” has 6 generated spelling variants in the German index at frequency #1,335. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,335
frequency rank, German
8,027
“S” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - zeitlich fortgeschritten, kurz vor Schluss, gegen Ende

Corpus desk

Index DE-spat · spät · German

spät · rank #1,335 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,335
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,027
  • PHOTO-FINISH sitzt

Nearest frequency peer: sitzt (-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.

Rang-Peers am Tippfehler-Magneten „spät“

Gleiche Seltenheitsbandbreite: nützlich, wenn ein Tippfehler auf ein Peer-Lemma trifft

corpus weight

What this shows „spät“ sitzt unter diesen FrequencyWords-Peers; die Tippfehlertiefe steht separat im Edit-Distance-Chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

spät vs SPD
0% similar
spät vs SPÖ
0% similar
spät vs sta
25% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for spät
PropertyValue
Headwordspät
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdjective
IPA[ʃpɛːt]
Letters4
Frequency rank#1,335
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Häufigkeitslage von Tippfehler-Magnet „spät“

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.spätliegt hier neben dem Tippfehler-Druck:

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

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „sitzt“ (#1,334), „sterben“ (#1,336), „Show“ (#1,333). Unter 8,027 „S“-Lemmata liegt „spät“ bei #1,335. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around spät (IPA [ʃpɛːt]), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,335 among 8,027 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for spät, with forms such as "psät", "sppät", and "sptä". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "SPD", "SPÖ", "sta", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is spät, spelled S-P-Ä-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    zeitlich fortgeschritten, kurz vor Schluss, gegen Ende
  2. 2
    zeitlich weiter hinten liegend, zu einem weiter hinten liegenden Zeitpunkt als erwartet
  3. 3
    erst gegen Morgen getreten (bezogen auf Fährten)

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Wir feierten bis in die späte Nacht.
  2. Der späte Bote brachte die erwartete Nachricht.

Antonyms

frühzeitigpünktlich

This word in other languages

late(English)tarde(Español)tard(Français)tarde(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • psät
  • sppät
  • sptä
  • spätt
  • sspät
  • säpt

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spät - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

psät2sppät1sptä2spätt1sspät1säpt2
Edit distance from "spät"

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 "spät"?
"spät" is spelled S-P-Ä-T. The IPA pronunciation is [ʃpɛːt].
What does "spät" mean?
As an adjective, "spät" means: zeitlich fortgeschritten, kurz vor Schluss, gegen Ende
What words are commonly confused with "spät"?
"spät" is commonly confused with "SPD", "SPÖ", "sta". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "spät"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "spät" is [ʃpɛːt]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "spät" come from?
"spät" 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 "spät", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Show#1,333Wald#1,342Ding#1,351tief#1,308

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

bauen6 variantsAutos6 variantsMaria6 variantswahr6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list