femme
/fɛm/noun, adjective, verb
femme is spelled F-E-M-M-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “fem vs femme” about 1,300 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, femme means “A woman; a wife; (now chiefly Canada, US) a young woman or girl” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of femme is femmes.
How many letters and syllables are in femme?
| Letters | 5: F-E-M-M-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words; the 22,651st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is femme?
Femme appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce femme?
- /fɛm/
Femme has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-femme.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with femme
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: fem (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of femme
- femmes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- more femme comparative
- most femme superlative
- femming participle, present
- femmed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does femme mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A woman; a wife; (now chiefly Canada, US) a young woman or girl.
- 2
A lesbian or other queer woman whose appearance, identity etc. is seen as feminine as opposed to butch.
Near-synonym: lipstick lesbian (sometimes differentiated)
- 3
A person whose gender is feminine-leaning, such as a feminine non-binary person.
The same is true of Goddess Spirituality spaces which are predicated on Radical Feminist rhetorics about Nature and the embodied experience – even those spaces which are open to trans women and nonbinary femmes may still fall back on langua
- 4
USderogatoryAn effeminate or gay man.
adjective
- 1
CanadaUSPertaining to a femme; feminine, female.
- 2
derogatoryEffeminate (of a man).
- 3
Characteristic of a feminine lesbian or queer woman.
Her style was more femme than butch.
verb
- 1
To feminize.
“Aside from the major surgeries, and this Karen woman, all the roles that keep the programme going are filled by Dorley graduates.” She twirls a finger in the air. “We’re an endless loop: girls femming girls femming girls. A snake biting it
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does femme come from?
From Middle English femme, itself borrowed from Old French fame (whence French femme), from Latin femina (“woman”). Doublet of feme, femina, and hembra.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).