High German

noun

"high-german" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“High German” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A native or inhabitant of the southern highlands of Germany; a High German speaker.

Corpus desk

Index EN-high-german · High German · English

High German · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "H" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

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.

Key facts for High German
PropertyValue
HeadwordHigh German
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “High German” in English

High Germansits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

High German is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for High German, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: Calque of German Hochdeutsch. The correct English form is High German, spelled H-I-G-H- -G-E-R-M-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    A native or inhabitant of the southern highlands of Germany; a High German speaker.
  2. 2
    Any of a group of West Germanic languages or dialects spoken in the southern highlands of Germany.
  3. 3
    The standard variety of High German as spoken and written throughout the German language area.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how High German appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. There is a widespread reluctance to speak High German in German-speaking Switzerland, and many Swiss prefer to speak even bad French or English to people who do not speak Swiss dialect.
  2. We, the students, also were supposed to speak High German, but, like our teachers, we did so with a fairly strong Swabian accent.

Etymology

Calque of German Hochdeutsch.

Synonyms

High DutchStandard High GermanSHGStandard German

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "High German"?
"High German" is spelled H-I-G-H- -G-E-R-M-A-N.
What does "High German" mean?
As a noun, "High German" means: A native or inhabitant of the southern highlands of Germany; a High German speaker.
What is the origin of the word "High German"?
Calque of German Hochdeutsch. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list