umgehen
[ʊmˈɡeːən]
The verdict
“umgehen” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #3,342 in German word frequency and used as a verb.
- #3,342
- frequency rank, German
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 13
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - ein physisches Hindernis umgehen, einen Umweg nehmen, aber auch mit übertragener Bedeutung: etwas auf eine umständliche Weise erledigen, weil die normale, einfache Weise aus irgendeinem Grunde in d...
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 | umgehen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ʊmˈɡeːən] |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #3,342 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 13 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “umgehen” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for umgehen is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ʊmˈɡeːən]. Corpus data places it at rank #3,342 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "ein physisches Hindernis umgehen, einen Umweg nehmen, aber auch mit übertragener Bedeutung: etwas auf eine umständliche Weise erledigen, weil die normale, einfache Weise aus irgendeinem Grunde in d...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for umgehen, with forms such as "mugehen", "ugmehen", and "umeghen". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "umgeht", "umsehen", "umlegen", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is umgehen, spelled U-M-G-E-H-E-N.
Definition
- 1ein physisches Hindernis umgehen, einen Umweg nehmen, aber auch mit übertragener Bedeutung: etwas auf eine umständliche Weise erledigen, weil die normale, einfache Weise aus irgendeinem Grunde in diesem Falle nicht funktioniert
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mugehen,ugmehen,umeghen,umgeehn,umgehenn,umgehhen,umgehne,umggehen,umgheen,ummgehen
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of umgehen - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "umgehen"?
What does "umgehen" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "umgehen"?
How do you pronounce "umgehen"?
What language does "umgehen" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “umgehen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is U-M-G-E-H-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ʊmˈɡeːən] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “umgeht” - see the side-by-side comparison. umgehen vs umgeht
- 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.