was das Zeug hält
The verdict
“was das Zeug hält” is outside the top-ranked German vocabulary, used as a phrase — the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 17
- letters
Dominant Wiktionary sense: intensiv, heftig, stark
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | was das Zeug hält |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | [vas das ˈt͡sɔɪ̯k ˌhɛlt] |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “was das Zeug hält” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for was das Zeug hält is 17 letters long, classified as a phrase, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [vas das ˈt͡sɔɪ̯k ˌhɛlt]. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "intensiv, heftig, stark".
No misspelling variants are generated for was das Zeug hält in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is was das Zeug hält, spelled W-A-S- -D-A-S- -Z-E-U-G- -H-Ä-L-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1intensiv, heftig, stark
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.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “was das Zeug hält, German word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/de/wort/was-das-zeug-halt
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Using “was das Zeug hält”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is W-A-S- -D-A-S- -Z-E-U-G- -H-Ä-L-T — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [vas das ˈt͡sɔɪ̯k ˌhɛlt] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Nearby German words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our German index: