superficial
[…]
The verdict
“superficial” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - an der obersten Schicht von etwas (zum Beispiel Erdboden, Gestein, Haut) oder sie betreffend, an der Außenseite; oberflächlich, äußerlich
Corpus desk
Index DE-superficial · superficial · German
superficial · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | superficial |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | […] |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „superficial“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
superficial is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed […]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
superficial doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is superficial, spelled S-U-P-E-R-F-I-C-I-A-L.
Definition
- 1an der obersten Schicht von etwas (zum Beispiel Erdboden, Gestein, Haut) oder sie betreffend, an der Außenseite; oberflächlich, äußerlich
- 2ohne Tiefe, ohne genaue Beschäftigung mit einer Sache, nur das Offensichtliche berücksichtigend; oberflächlich
- 3als ähnlich erscheinend, dennoch verschieden; äußerlich
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how superficial appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The wound was only superficial.
A superficial investigation revealed that the crime was committed by at least two persons.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.