wollen
[ˈvɔlən]
The verdict
“wollen” is in the everyday core of German, ranked #182 in German word frequency and used as a verb.
- #182
- frequency rank, German
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - entschieden haben und deswegen vorhaben beziehungsweise den Vorsatz haben, etwas zu tun, um etwas zu erlangen oder zu erreichen
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wollen |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ˈvɔlən] |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #182 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wollen” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for wollen is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈvɔlən]. Corpus data places it at rank #182 in overall German word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for wollen, with forms such as "owllen", "wlolen", and "woleln". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wollt", "women", "worden", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is wollen, spelled W-O-L-L-E-N.
Definition
- 1entschieden haben und deswegen vorhaben beziehungsweise den Vorsatz haben, etwas zu tun, um etwas zu erlangen oder zu erreichen
- 2nur den Wunsch nach etwas haben, danach verlangen, es begehren, sich danach (nur) sehnen
- 3drückt Distanz/Zweifel an einer wiedergegebenen Aussage aus
- 4freundlich auffordern, sollen (abgeschwächt), oft mit „bitte“, auch appellierend
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: owllen,wlolen,woleln,wolen,wollenn,wollne,wwollen
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wollen - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Using “wollen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is W-O-L-L-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈvɔlən] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “wollt” - see the side-by-side comparison. wollen vs wollt
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.