Old High German

name

"old-high-german" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
15
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The early recorded form of the High German language, spoken from the 8th century to the 11th century.

Corpus desk

Index EN-old-high-german · Old High German · English

Old High German · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 15 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "O" 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 Old High German
PropertyValue
HeadwordOld High German
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Old High German” in English

Old High Germanfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

Old High German is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The early recorded form of the High German language, spoken from the 8th century to the 11th century.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Old High German, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is Old High German, spelled O-L-D- -H-I-G-H- -G-E-R-M-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    The early recorded form of the High German language, spoken from the 8th century to the 11th century.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Old Alemannic is a dialect of Old High German, which is traditionally divided into two main dialect groups: Old Upper German (Altoberdeutsch) and Old Franconian (Altfränkisch). Old Upper German comprises Old Alemannic (Altalemannisch) and Old Bavarian (Altbairisch) while Old Franconian consists of Old Mid Franconian (Altmittelfränkisch), Old Rhine Francon…

Synonyms

OHGOld High Dutch

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 "Old High German"?
"Old High German" is spelled O-L-D- -H-I-G-H- -G-E-R-M-A-N.
What does "Old High German" mean?
As a proper noun, "Old High German" means: The early recorded form of the High German language, spoken from the 8th century to the 11th century.
What language does "Old High German" come from?
"Old High German" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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