treffen
[ˈtʁɛfn̩]
The verdict
“treffen” is in the everyday core of German, ranked #482 in German word frequency and used as a verb.
- #482
- frequency rank, German
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - jemandem begegnen
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 | treffen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ˈtʁɛfn̩] |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #482 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “treffen” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for treffen is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈtʁɛfn̩]. Corpus data places it at rank #482 in overall German word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for treffen, with forms such as "rteffen", "terffen", and "trefefn". 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 18 confusable-pair relationships, "treten", "Treuen", "Tresen", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
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 treffen, spelled T-R-E-F-F-E-N.
Definition
- 1jemandem begegnen
- 2jemandem begegnen
- 3einander begegnen, auch sich in Spiel oder Kampf gegenübertreten
- 4auf etwas oder jemandem aufprallen, ein Ziel berühren
- 5das Richtige sagen, das Gemeinte betonen, den Kern erfassen
- 6gut zusammenpassen
- 7jemanden emotional berühren oder sogar verletzen
- 8etwas Negatives geschieht jemandem
- 9(mit bestimmtem Akkusativobjekt) etwas ausführen, realisieren
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: rteffen,terffen,trefefn,trefen,treffenn,treffne,trfefen,trreffen,ttreffen
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of treffen - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Using “treffen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is T-R-E-F-F-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈtʁɛfn̩] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “treten” - see the side-by-side comparison. treffen vs treten
- 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.