speien

[ˈʃpaɪ̯ən]

/[ˈʃpaɪ̯ən]/ verb

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

The verdict

“speien” is uncommon German (frequency #99,104 among 8,027 “S” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#99,104
frequency rank, German
8,027
“S” headwords

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

Corpus desk

Index DE-speien · speien · German

speien · rank #99,104 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #99,104
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,027
  • PHOTO-FINISH Sparprogramm

Nearest frequency peer: Sparprogramm (-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 „speien“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for speien
PropertyValue
Headwordspeien
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[ˈʃpaɪ̯ən]
Letters6
Frequency rank#99,104
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „speien“ im Deutschen

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

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

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Sparprogramm“ (#99,103), „spelling“ (#99,105), „spindeln“ (#99,107). Unter 8,027 „S“-Lemmata liegt „speien“ bei #99,104. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

speien is uncommon German at frequency #99,104 among 8,027 “S” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed [ˈʃpaɪ̯ən]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for speien in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is speien, spelled S-P-E-I-E-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    spucken
  2. 2
    sich übergeben

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. „die geborstene Erde scheint Flammen zu speien“ (Goethe, Dichtung und Wahrheit)
  2. Am Springbrunnen speit ein kleiner Fisch das Wasser ins Becken.

This word in other languages

spit(English)cracher(Français)cuspir(Português)

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 "speien"?
"speien" is spelled S-P-E-I-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈʃpaɪ̯ən].
What does "speien" mean?
As a verb, "speien" means: spucken
How do you pronounce "speien"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "speien" is [ˈʃpaɪ̯ən]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "speien" come from?
"speien" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "speien", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

spähte#99,117sempre#99,078sterbt#99,134stoppe#99,141

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list