verschlimmbessern
[fɛɐ̯ˈʃlɪmˌbɛsɐn]
The verdict
“verschlimmbessern” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - etwas durch eine gut gemeinte Aktion nur noch schlimmer, schlechter machen
Corpus desk
Index DE-verschlimmbessern · verschlimmbessern · German
verschlimmbessern · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 17 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "V" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | verschlimmbessern |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [fɛɐ̯ˈʃlɪmˌbɛsɐn] |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „verschlimmbessern“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
verschlimmbessern is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed [fɛɐ̯ˈʃlɪmˌbɛsɐn]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "etwas durch eine gut gemeinte Aktion nur noch schlimmer, schlechter machen".
verschlimmbessern doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is verschlimmbessern, spelled V-E-R-S-C-H-L-I-M-M-B-E-S-S-E-R-N.
Definition
- 1etwas durch eine gut gemeinte Aktion nur noch schlimmer, schlechter machen
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how verschlimmbessern appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Er versucht zwar immer sein Bestes, aber durch seine Tollpatschigkeit verschlimmbessert er uns alles nur.
„Hier ist der Name im Englischen ziemlich verballhornt worden, man hat ihn sozusagen verschlimmbessert.“
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.