Weltschmerz

/[ˈvɛltˌʃmɛʁt͡s]/ noun

Letters

11 characters

Frequency Rank

#63,942

in German word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

0

similar word pairs

Weltschmerz is aGermannoun. It means: Gefühl der Trauer und schmerzhaft empfundener Melancholie, das jemand über seine eigene Unzulänglichkeit empfindet, die er zugleich als Teil der Unzulänglichkeit der Welt und der bestehenden Verhäl... Pronounced [ˈvɛltˌʃmɛʁt͡s].

Key facts for Weltschmerz
PropertyValue
HeadwordWeltschmerz
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈvɛltˌʃmɛʁt͡s]
Letters11
Frequency rank#63,942
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of Weltschmerz in German word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for Weltschmerz is 11 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈvɛltˌʃmɛʁt͡s]. Corpus data places it at rank #63,942 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Gefühl der Trauer und schmerzhaft empfundener Melancholie, das jemand über seine eigene Unzulänglichkeit empfindet, die er zugleich als Teil der Unzulänglichkeit der Welt und der bestehenden Verhäl...".

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for Weltschmerz in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable German patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.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 Weltschmerz, spelled W-E-L-T-S-C-H-M-E-R-Z, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Gefühl der Trauer und schmerzhaft empfundener Melancholie, das jemand über seine eigene Unzulänglichkeit empfindet, die er zugleich als Teil der Unzulänglichkeit der Welt und der bestehenden Verhältnisse betrachtet

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #63,942 in German

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Weltschmerz"?
"Weltschmerz" is spelled W-E-L-T-S-C-H-M-E-R-Z. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈvɛltˌʃmɛʁt͡s].
What does "Weltschmerz" mean?
As a noun, "Weltschmerz" means: Gefühl der Trauer und schmerzhaft empfundener Melancholie, das jemand über seine eigene Unzulänglichkeit empfindet, die er zugleich als Teil der Unzulänglichkeit der Welt und der bestehenden Verhäl...
How do you pronounce "Weltschmerz"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Weltschmerz" is [ˈvɛltˌʃmɛʁt͡s]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Weltschmerz" come from?
"Weltschmerz" 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.

Nearby German words

Other entries that begin with the letter W in our German index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.