vorstehen

[ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʃteːən]

/[ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʃteːən]/ verb

The verdict

“vorstehen” is uncommon German (frequency #89,782 among 4,163 “V” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#89,782
frequency rank, German
4,163
“V” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - weiter (als etwas anderes) herausragen

Corpus desk

Index DE-vorstehen · vorstehen · German

vorstehen · rank #89,782 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #89,782
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,163
  • PHOTO-FINISH Vorbereitungs…

Nearest frequency peer: Vorbereitungsdienst (-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 „vorstehen“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for vorstehen
PropertyValue
Headwordvorstehen
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʃteːən]
Letters9
Frequency rank#89,782
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „vorstehen“ im Deutschen

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

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

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Vorbereitungsdienst“ (#89,780), „VPs“ (#89,784), „Vulgata“ (#89,785). Unter 4,163 „V“-Lemmata liegt „vorstehen“ bei #89,782. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

vorstehen is uncommon German at frequency #89,782 among 4,163 “V” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed [ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʃteːən]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for vorstehen in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

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 vorstehen, spelled V-O-R-S-T-E-H-E-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    weiter (als etwas anderes) herausragen
  2. 2
    in leitender Position sein
  3. 3
    Wild durch lautloses Verharren anzeigen
  4. 4
    sich zeitlich in nächster Zeit ereignen

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. „Das Krenz oder die Kruppe soll breit, rund und lang, die Hüften sollen abgerundet sein und nicht zu weit vorstehen.“
  2. „1364 schloss er mit seinen Brüdern Albrecht III. und Leopold III. eine ‚Hausordnung‘, derzufolge jeweils der älteste der Familie dieser vorstehen und die Regierung aller Länder leiten sollte.“

Synonyms

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); 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 "vorstehen"?
"vorstehen" is spelled V-O-R-S-T-E-H-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʃteːən].
What does "vorstehen" mean?
As a verb, "vorstehen" means: weiter (als etwas anderes) herausragen
How do you pronounce "vorstehen"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "vorstehen" is [ˈfoːɐ̯ˌʃteːən]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "vorstehen" come from?
"vorstehen" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "vorstehen", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list