Umlaut
German, noun/ˈʊmˌlaʊ̯t/
Umlaut is spelled U-M-L-A-U-T (6 letters) and appears about once in every 2 million words in written German, the 63,211th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Umlaut is a German masculine noun meaning “umlaut” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “Ersetzung eines hinteren Vokals durch einen vorderen als Assimilation mit einem Vokal der Folgesilbe”.
What does Umlaut mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculineumlaut
- 2
masculineone of the German letters ä, ö, ü (capital letters: Ä, Ö, Ü) and the diphthong äu (capital: Äu) produced by placing the diacritical mark (◌̈) over the vowels a, o, and u
- 3
masculinethe sounds represented by these letters
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Ersetzung eines hinteren Vokals durch einen vorderen als Assimilation mit einem Vokal der Folgesilbe 2. die Buchstaben ä, ö, ü und die entsprechenden Großbuchstaben beziehungsweise für die Laute [ɛ], [œ], [ʏ] und die entsprechenden Langvokale
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of Umlaut
- Umlautes genitive
- Umlauts genitive
- Umlaute plural
- Umlauten dative definite plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce Umlaut?
- /ˈʊmˌlaʊ̯t/
- [ˈʊmˌlaʊ̯t]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to Umlaut
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is Umlaut in German?
Umlaut appears about once in every 2 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).