fehlen
\ˈfeːlən\
The verdict
“fehlen” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Manquer, faire défaut.
Corpus desk
Index FR-fehlen · fehlen · French
fehlen · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" 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 | fehlen |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ˈfeːlən\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « fehlen » en français
Rare enough to double-check
fehlen is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \ˈfeːlən\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 7 senses are on record.
fehlen doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is fehlen, spelled F-E-H-L-E-N.
Definition
- 1Manquer, faire défaut.
- 2, es fehlt an : Manquer, faire défaut.
- 3(etwas fehlen, nichts fehlen) Être malade, ne pas être dans son assiette.
- 4Être absent.
- 5Manquer (à quelqu'un émotionnellement).
- 6Faire tort.
- 7Manquer, rater (un but).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fehlen appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Das fehlte gerade noch!
Es fehlte nicht viel und wir hätten gewonnen.
Synonyms
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.