witness

[ˈwɪtnəs]

/[ˈwɪtnəs]/ noun

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

The verdict

“witness” is uncommon German (frequency #91,159 among 2,930 “W” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#91,159
frequency rank, German
2,930
“W” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - der Zeuge, die Zeugin

Corpus desk

Index DE-witness · witness · German

witness · rank #91,159 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #91,159
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,930
  • PHOTO-FINISH witzlos

Nearest frequency peer: witzlos (+1 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 „witness“

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

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for witness
PropertyValue
Headwordwitness
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈwɪtnəs]
Letters7
Frequency rank#91,159
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „witness“ im Deutschen

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

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „witzlos“ (#91,160), „Wolfsrudel“ (#91,164), „willing“ (#91,153). Unter 2,930 „W“-Lemmata liegt „witness“ bei #91,159. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

witness is uncommon German at frequency #91,159 among 2,930 “W” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈwɪtnəs]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

witness has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular German conventions. 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 entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is witness, spelled W-I-T-N-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    der Zeuge, die Zeugin
  2. 2
    Trauzeuge
  3. 3
    Zeugnis
  4. 4
    Bekenntnis

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. "This time there would be no witnesses."

Synonyms

evidence

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 "witness"?
"witness" is spelled W-I-T-N-E-S-S. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈwɪtnəs].
What does "witness" mean?
As a noun, "witness" means: der Zeuge, die Zeugin
How do you pronounce "witness"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "witness" is [ˈwɪtnəs]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "witness" come from?
"witness" 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 "witness", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

witzlos#91,160willing#91,153Wozniak#91,167Würfels#91,170

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list