Stern
[ʃtɛʁn]
The verdict
“Stern” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #2,617 in German word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,617
- frequency rank, German
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - massereiche, selbst leuchtende Gaskugel, Himmelskörper
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Stern |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ʃtɛʁn] |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,617 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Stern” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for Stern is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ʃtɛʁn]. Corpus data places it at rank #2,617 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for Stern, with forms such as "setrn", "sstern", and "stenr". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Sven", "stur", "Strg", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is Stern, spelled S-T-E-R-N.
Definition
- 1massereiche, selbst leuchtende Gaskugel, Himmelskörper
- 2jeder Himmelskörper, der dem bloßen Auge punktförmig erscheint
- 3mehrstrahliges oder mehrzackiges Symbol oder Arrangement
- 4Kosebezeichnung für einen geliebten oder verehrten Menschen
- 5Malzeichen auf der Tastatur
- 6Heck eines Bootes, Schiffes
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: setrn,sstern,stenr,sternn,sterrn,stren,sttern,tsern
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Stern - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "Stern"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “Stern”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is S-T-E-R-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ʃtɛʁn] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Sven” - see the side-by-side comparison. Stern vs Sven
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
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.