Z
[t͡sɛt]
The verdict
“Z” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #679) as a character. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #679
- frequency rank, German
- 1,996
- “Z” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - sechsundzwanzigster Buchstabe des lateinischen Alphabets
Corpus desk
Index DE-z · Z · German
Z · rank #679 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #679
- LEN-SHORT 1 letters
- VOW-0 0 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,996
- PHOTO-FINISH tatsächlich
Nearest frequency peer: tatsächlich (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “Z”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- spricht
spricht
99,325 corpus weight
- System
System
99,324 corpus weight
- tatsächlich
tatsächlich
99,323 corpus weight
- Z
Z
99,322 corpus weight
- anderem
anderem
99,321 corpus weight
- bekommt
bekommt
99,320 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “Z” sits against the nearest ranked German headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | Z |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Character |
| IPA | [t͡sɛt] |
| Letters | 1 |
| Frequency rank | #679 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Z” sits in German frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for Z is neighbouring look-alikes ("zu", "ze", …), not just typos; it is acharacter pronounced [t͡sɛt]. Frequency #679 among 1,996 “Z” headwords. Gloss: "sechsundzwanzigster Buchstabe des lateinischen Alphabets".
No misspelling variants are generated for Z in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "zu", "ze", "ZK", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 Z, spelled Z.
Definition
- 1sechsundzwanzigster Buchstabe des lateinischen Alphabets
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Z appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
„Z wie Zeppelin“ bemerkte der Sachbearbeiter ermüdet.
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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "Z"?
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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.