zerfahren
[t͡sɛɐ̯ˈfaːʁən]
The verdict
“zerfahren” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - (Untergrund) durch das Befahren mit einem Fahrzeug beschädigen/zerstören
Corpus desk
Index DE-zerfahren · zerfahren · German
zerfahren · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "Z" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | zerfahren |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [t͡sɛɐ̯ˈfaːʁən] |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „zerfahren“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
zerfahren is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed [t͡sɛɐ̯ˈfaːʁən]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
zerfahren has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is zerfahren, spelled Z-E-R-F-A-H-R-E-N.
Definition
- 1(Untergrund) durch das Befahren mit einem Fahrzeug beschädigen/zerstören
- 2(etwas) durch Überfahren mit einem Fahrzeug zerstören und verteilen
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how zerfahren appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Die Baufahrzeuge haben die Auffahrt zum Baugrundstück völlig zerfahren.
Die Vögel picken eifrig an den auf der Überholspur zerfahrenen Früchten.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.