streben
[ˈʃtʁeːbn̩]
The verdict
“streben” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #8,787 in German word frequency and used as a verb.
- #8,787
- frequency rank, German
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - sich voller Energie zu einem bestimmten Ort, Ziel hinbewegen
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 | streben |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ˈʃtʁeːbn̩] |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #8,787 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “streben” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for streben is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈʃtʁeːbn̩]. Corpus data places it at rank #8,787 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for streben, with forms such as "srteben", "sstreben", and "strbeen". 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, "street", "strebt", "Stuben", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is streben, spelled S-T-R-E-B-E-N.
Definition
- 1sich voller Energie zu einem bestimmten Ort, Ziel hinbewegen
- 2sich mit viel Einsatz um etwas bemühen
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: srteben,sstreben,strbeen,strebben,strebenn,strebne,streebn,strreben,sttreben,tsreben
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of streben - 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 "streben"?
What does "streben" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "streben"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “streben”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is S-T-R-E-B-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈʃtʁeːbn̩] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “street” - see the side-by-side comparison. streben vs street
- 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.