# Frankenstein

> English word · Proper noun · IPA /ˈfɹæŋ.kən.staɪn/ · frequency rank #18,830

## Definitions
1. Various small towns in Germany.
2. Former name of Ząbkowice Śląskie: a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland.
3. A surname from German.
4. Victor Frankenstein, a fictional character and the main protagonist and title character in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
5. The unnamed monster created by Victor Frankenstein: a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus as the main antagonist.

## Etymology
From German Frankenstein, various places named for Franken (“Franks, Frankish”) + Stein (“stone”). The use of referencing mad scientists derives from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, where Victor Frankenstein assembles a man from pieces of various corpses and brings him to life with electricity. Use of the reference to the monster itself is an ellipsis of the earlier Frankenstein's monster, with the monster's usual modern appearance derived from Boris Karloff's performance in the 1931 film Frankenstein.

## Common misspellings (19)
`farnkenstein`, `ffrankenstein`, `fraknenstein`, `franeknstein`, `frankennstein`, `frankensetin`, `frankensstein`, `frankensteinn`, `frankensteni`, `frankenstien`, `frankensttein`, `frankentsein`, `frankesntein`, `frankkenstein`, `franknestein`, `frannkenstein`, `frnakenstein`, `frrankenstein`, `rfankenstein`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/frankenstein