über
[ˈyːbɐ]
The verdict
“über” is in the everyday core of German, ranked #54 in German word frequency and used as a preposition.
- #54
- frequency rank, German
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - oberhalb liegend (Antwort auf die Frage „wo?“)
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 | über |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | [ˈyːbɐ] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #54 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “über” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for über is 4 letters long, classified as a preposition, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈyːbɐ]. Corpus data places it at rank #54 in overall German word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for über, with forms such as "büer", "übber", and "überr". 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, "UE", "Uhr", "Uwe", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No documented word history exists 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 über, spelled Ü-B-E-R.
Definition
- 1oberhalb liegend (Antwort auf die Frage „wo?“)
- 2sich oben, oberhalb von etwas, bewegend (Antwort auf die Frage „wohin?“)
- 3eine Zeitspanne ausdrückend
- 4sich durch etwas bewegend, etwas passierend
- 5auf etwas/jemanden gerichtetes Handeln: von
- 6bezeichnet einen Mittler: durch, mit Hilfe von
- 7lautend auf genau (nicht mehr als, siehe Adverb hierunter)
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: büer,übber,überr,übre,üebr
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of über - 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
How do you spell "über"?
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Using “über”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is Ü-B-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈyːbɐ] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “UE” - see the side-by-side comparison. über vs UE
- 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.