verfärben

[fɛɐ̯ˈfɛʁbn̩]

/[fɛɐ̯ˈfɛʁbn̩]/ verb

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

The verdict

“verfärben” is uncommon German (frequency #81,103 among 4,163 “V” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#81,103
frequency rank, German
4,163
“V” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - die ursprüngliche Farbe ändern, meist weil ein neuer Farbton dazukommt, das Ergebnis wird eher negativ gesehen

Corpus desk

Index DE-verfarben · verfärben · German

verfärben · rank #81,103 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #81,103
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,163
  • PHOTO-FINISH Verdienstausf…

Nearest frequency peer: Verdienstausfall (-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 „verfärben“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for verfärben
PropertyValue
Headwordverfärben
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[fɛɐ̯ˈfɛʁbn̩]
Letters9
Frequency rank#81,103
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „verfärben“ im Deutschen

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

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Verdienstausfall“ (#81,101), „Vergünstigung“ (#81,105), „verblüffen“ (#81,100). Unter 4,163 „V“-Lemmata liegt „verfärben“ bei #81,103. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

verfärben is uncommon German at frequency #81,103 among 4,163 “V” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed [fɛɐ̯ˈfɛʁbn̩]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for verfärben in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 verfärben, spelled V-E-R-F-Ä-R-B-E-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    die ursprüngliche Farbe ändern, meist weil ein neuer Farbton dazukommt, das Ergebnis wird eher negativ gesehen
  2. 2
    die Farbe verlieren/wechseln/ändern, ohne dass dies ein absichtliches Tun ist
  3. 3
    jahreszeitenbedingt das Haarkleid/Fell wechseln

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Vom Rauchen verfärben die Finger und Zähne.
  2. Ein vom Tee verfärbter Becher sieht nicht mehr frisch und sauber aus.

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 "verfärben"?
"verfärben" is spelled V-E-R-F-Ä-R-B-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is [fɛɐ̯ˈfɛʁbn̩].
What does "verfärben" mean?
As a verb, "verfärben" means: die ursprüngliche Farbe ändern, meist weil ein neuer Farbton dazukommt, das Ergebnis wird eher negativ gesehen
How do you pronounce "verfärben"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "verfärben" is [fɛɐ̯ˈfɛʁbn̩]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "verfärben" come from?
"verfärben" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "verfärben", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

verneigen#81,110verschämt#81,114Urbanität#81,089Videochat#81,127

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list