Gestapo
\ɡɛs.ta.po\
The verdict
“Gestapo” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #22,576 in French word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #22,576
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Police politique du nazisme.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Gestapo |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | \ɡɛs.ta.po\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #22,576 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Gestapo” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for Gestapo is 7 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɡɛs.ta.po\. Corpus data places it at rank #22,576 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for Gestapo, with forms such as "egstapo", "gesatpo", and "gesstapo". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "Gustavo", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is Gestapo, spelled G-E-S-T-A-P-O.
Definition
- 1Police politique du nazisme.
- 2Police qui pratique la torture, les massacres individuels ou de masse, etc.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: egstapo,gesatpo,gesstapo,gestaop,gestappo,gestpao,gesttapo,getsapo,ggestapo,gsetapo
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Gestapo - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "Gestapo"?
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Using “Gestapo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is G-E-S-T-A-P-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɡɛs.ta.po\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Gustavo” - see the side-by-side comparison. Gestapo vs Gustavo
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French 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.