whether

[…]

/[…]/ conj

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

The verdict

“whether” is uncommon German (frequency #72,049 among 2,930 “W” headwords), classed as a conjunction. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#72,049
frequency rank, German
2,930
“W” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - ob

Corpus desk

Index DE-whether · whether · German

whether · rank #72,049 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #72,049
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,930
  • PHOTO-FINISH Westindien

Nearest frequency peer: Westindien (-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 „whether“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for whether
PropertyValue
Headwordwhether
LanguageGerman
Part of speechConjunction
IPA[…]
Letters7
Frequency rank#72,049
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „whether“ im Deutschen

Die Häufigkeit läuft von den wenigen Alltagswörtern (links) bis zur langen, seltenen Schwanzseite (rechts).whetherfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Westindien“ (#72,047), „wienern“ (#72,051), „Westgrenze“ (#72,046). Unter 2,930 „W“-Lemmata liegt „whether“ bei #72,049. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

whether is uncommon German at frequency #72,049 among 2,930 “W” headwords, classed as aconjunction, transcribed […]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "ob".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for whether, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No documented word history exists for this headword, 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 whether, spelled W-H-E-T-H-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    ob

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Do you know whether he's coming?

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 "whether"?
"whether" is spelled W-H-E-T-H-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is […].
What does "whether" mean?
As a conjunction, "whether" means: ob
How do you pronounce "whether"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "whether" is […]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "whether" come from?
"whether" 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 "whether", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

wienern#72,051wohlige#72,060allegra#72,125Ulreich#71,944

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list