The 5,000 most common German words

The whole list: 5,000 German word forms in frequency order, each with an English translation, part of speech, CEFR level and an example sentence. Work down it in rank order and every word you learn is the most useful one you did not know yet.

Updated September 20265,000 wordsAudio on every wordFree to browse

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RankGermanEnglishPart of speechCEFRExampleAudio

4,998 der Sex sex noun B1 Darüber, wie oft man Sex hat, spricht man selten.

5,000 die Absage refusal, cancellation noun B1 Nach dem Vorstellungsgespräch kam leider eine Absage.