Tuff

[tʊf]

/[tʊf]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“Tuff” is uncommon German (frequency #65,775 among 2,684 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#65,775
frequency rank, German
2,684
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - vulkanisches Gestein, das zu mindestens 75% aus Pyroklasten besteht

Corpus desk

Index DE-tuff · Tuff · German

Tuff · rank #65,775 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #65,775
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,684
  • PHOTO-FINISH träumten

Nearest frequency peer: träumten (-2 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.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „Tuff“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „Tuff“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Tuff
PropertyValue
HeadwordTuff
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[tʊf]
Letters4
Frequency rank#65,775
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „Tuff“ im Deutschen

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.Tufffällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „träumten“ (#65,773), „tätowierte“ (#65,777), „trollt“ (#65,772). Unter 2,684 „T“-Lemmata liegt „Tuff“ bei #65,775. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Tuff is uncommon German at frequency #65,775 among 2,684 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [tʊf]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Tuff, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. 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.

No explicit etymology string is stored 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 Tuff, spelled T-U-F-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    vulkanisches Gestein, das zu mindestens 75% aus Pyroklasten besteht
  2. 2
    Sediment, das auf ausgefälltem Kalk aufgebaut ist

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Tuff appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Die Klosterkirche Maria Laach in der Eifel wurde aus Tuff erbaut.
  2. Tuff ist typisch für Karstgebiete.

Synonyms

TuffsteinKalktuffQuellkalkSüßwasserkalk

This word in other languages

tuff(English)

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 "Tuff"?
"Tuff" is spelled T-U-F-F. The IPA pronunciation is [tʊf].
What does "Tuff" mean?
As a noun, "Tuff" means: vulkanisches Gestein, das zu mindestens 75% aus Pyroklasten besteht
How do you pronounce "Tuff"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Tuff" is [tʊf]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Tuff" come from?
"Tuff" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Tuff", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

swim#65,745sont#65,693quai#65,600PTBS#65,594

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list