fem
/fɛm/
"fem" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fem” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #33,233) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #33,233
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of femme.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fem · fem · English
fem · rank #33,233 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #33,233
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH Fein
Nearest frequency peer: Fein (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “fem”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- fatherhood
fatherhood
66,771 corpus weight
- Favre
Favre
66,770 corpus weight
- Fein
Fein
66,769 corpus weight
- fem
fem
66,768 corpus weight
- femoral
femoral
66,767 corpus weight
- Ferreira
Ferreira
66,766 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “fem” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | fem |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɛm/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #33,233 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “fem”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for fem is neighbouring look-alikes ("fi", "FL", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /fɛm/. Frequency #33,233 among 2,507 “F” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for fem, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fi", "FL", "FM", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Clipping of feminine. The correct English form is fem, spelled F-E-M.
Definition
- 1Synonym of femme.
- 2A feminine or effeminate person.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fem appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Oral history gave them an opportunity to share their vision of the world across generations, while giving us a chance to imagine the pleasure and pain of daily life for butches and fems in an earlier period.
Versatile, but love to bottom … No divas or fems. Not homophobic at all, just my personal preference.
Etymology
Clipping of feminine.
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 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fem", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).