spotlight

[ˈspɒtlaɪ̯t]

/[ˈspɒtlaɪ̯t]/ noun

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

The verdict

“spotlight” is uncommon German (frequency #50,898 among 8,027 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,898
frequency rank, German
8,027
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - sehr starkes Licht (zum Beispiel auf einer Bühne); Scheinwerferlicht

Corpus desk

Index DE-spotlight · spotlight · German

spotlight · rank #50,898 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,898
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,027
  • PHOTO-FINISH spreng

Nearest frequency peer: spreng (+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 „spotlight“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for spotlight
PropertyValue
Headwordspotlight
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈspɒtlaɪ̯t]
Letters9
Frequency rank#50,898
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „spotlight“ im Deutschen

Die Häufigkeit läuft von den wenigen Alltagswörtern (links) bis zur langen, seltenen Schwanzseite (rechts).spotlightfällt 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: „spreng“ (#50,899), „spinnst“ (#50,896), „Sprockhövel“ (#50,900). Unter 8,027 „S“-Lemmata liegt „spotlight“ bei #50,898. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

spotlight is uncommon German at frequency #50,898 among 8,027 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈspɒtlaɪ̯t]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

spotlight has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

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 spotlight, spelled S-P-O-T-L-I-G-H-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    sehr starkes Licht (zum Beispiel auf einer Bühne); Scheinwerferlicht
  2. 2
    Mittelpunkt öffentlichen Interesses; Rampenlicht

Synonyms

limelight

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 "spotlight"?
"spotlight" is spelled S-P-O-T-L-I-G-H-T. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈspɒtlaɪ̯t].
What does "spotlight" mean?
As a noun, "spotlight" means: sehr starkes Licht (zum Beispiel auf einer Bühne); Scheinwerferlicht
How do you pronounce "spotlight"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "spotlight" is [ˈspɒtlaɪ̯t]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "spotlight" come from?
"spotlight" 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 "spotlight", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

simmering#50,883Tierreich#50,927schnurren#50,866schnarcht#50,865

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list