djembe
/ˈd͡ʒɛmbeɪ/
"djembe" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“djembe” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large, rope-tuned, skin-covered drum played with the bare hands, used in West African and some fusion music.
Corpus desk
Index EN-djembe · djembe · English
djembe · 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 "D" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | djembe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈd͡ʒɛmbeɪ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “djembe” in English
Rare enough to double-check
djembe is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈd͡ʒɛmbeɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A large, rope-tuned, skin-covered drum played with the bare hands, used in West African and some fusion music.".
djembe has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French djembé, from Mandinka jembe which derives from the Bambara language, "djé" is the verb for "gather" and "bé" translates as "peace." As a result, "Anke djé, anke bé" which translates to "everyone gather together in peace" and defines the drum's p… The correct English form is djembe, spelled D-J-E-M-B-E.
Definition
- 1A large, rope-tuned, skin-covered drum played with the bare hands, used in West African and some fusion music.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how djembe appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
There are three principal types of traditional drums in Guinean Sousou culture: the djembe, the dundun, and the tama. The djembe is a single-headed goblet-shaped drum with a relatively high-pitched tone.
The djembe is one of the best-known and popular African drums, particular with those in the West who are interested in learning a drumming tradition.
Etymology
From French djembé, from Mandinka jembe which derives from the Bambara language, "djé" is the verb for "gather" and "bé" translates as "peace." As a result, "Anke djé, anke bé" which translates to "everyone gather together in peace" and defines the drum's purpose.
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.