tongue
[tʌŋ]
The verdict
“tongue” is uncommon German (frequency #78,639 among 35,386 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #78,639
- frequency rank, German
- 35,386
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Organ im Mund; Zunge
Corpus desk
Index DE-tongue · tongue · German
tongue · rank #78,639 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #78,639
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 35,386
- PHOTO-FINISH Titte
Nearest frequency peer: Titte (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “tongue”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Tierquäler
Tierquäler
21,364 corpus weight
- Titte
Titte
21,363 corpus weight
- tongue
tongue
21,362 corpus weight
- toppt
toppt
21,361 corpus weight
- Totgeburt
Totgeburt
21,360 corpus weight
- Trainerinnen
Trainerinnen
21,359 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “tongue” sits against the nearest ranked German headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tongue |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [tʌŋ] |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #78,639 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tongue” sits in German frequency
Rare enough to double-check
tongue is uncommon German at frequency #78,639 among 35,386 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [tʌŋ]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
tongue doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is tongue, spelled T-O-N-G-U-E.
Definition
- 1Organ im Mund; Zunge
- 2die Sprache
- 3Art oder Fähigkeit, Sprache zu benutzen
- 4die Zunge: Teil eines Schuhs
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "tongue"?
What does "tongue" mean?
How do you pronounce "tongue"?
What language does "tongue" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar German words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tongue", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked German headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.