luft

noun

"luft" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“luft” is an uncommon English word, ranked #64,510 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#64,510
frequency rank, English
4
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A piece moved in front of a king to prevent a back-rank mate.

Key facts for luft
PropertyValue
Headwordluft
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters4
Frequency rank#64,510
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “luft” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). luft lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for luft is 4 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #64,510 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A piece moved in front of a king to prevent a back-rank mate.".

luft doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From German Luft (“air”). Doublet of lift and loft. The correct English form is luft, spelled L-U-F-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    A piece moved in front of a king to prevent a back-rank mate.

Etymology

From German Luft (“air”). Doublet of lift and loft.

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 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "luft"?
"luft" is spelled L-U-F-T.
What does "luft" mean?
As a noun, "luft" means: A piece moved in front of a king to prevent a back-rank mate.
What is the origin of the word "luft"?
From German Luft (“air”). Doublet of lift and loft. 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.

Using “luft”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is L-U-F-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list