ze
[zə]
The verdict
“ze” is a moderately-common German word, ranked #19,459 in German word frequency and used as a pronoun.
- #19,459
- frequency rank, German
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - unbetonte Form des Personalpronomens zij (Subjektform der dritten Person Singular Femininum): sie
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 | ze |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Pronoun |
| IPA | [zə] |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #19,459 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ze” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for ze is 2 letters long, classified as a pronoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [zə]. Corpus data places it at rank #19,459 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for ze in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "zu", "ZK", "Zi", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct German form is ze, spelled Z-E.
Definition
- 1unbetonte Form des Personalpronomens zij (Subjektform der dritten Person Singular Femininum): sie
- 2unbetonte Form des Personalpronomens haar (Objektform der dritten Person Singular Femininum): ihr, sie
- 3unbetonte Form des Personalpronomens zij (Subjektform der dritten Person Plural): sie
- 4unbetonte Form der Personalpronomen hen und hun (Objektform der dritten Person Plural): ihnen, sie
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “ze”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is Z-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [zə] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “zu” - see the side-by-side comparison. ze vs zu
- 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.