# femme

> English word · Noun · IPA /fɛm/ · frequency rank #22,671

## Definitions
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.
3. A person whose gender is feminine-leaning, such as a feminine non-binary person.

## Etymology
Borrowed from French femme (“woman”). Doublet of feme, femina, and hembra.

## Easily confused with
- **fete** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/femme-vs-fete)
- **fume** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/femme-vs-fume)
- **frame** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/femme-vs-frame)
- **fence** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/femme-vs-fence)
- **flame** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/femme-vs-flame)
- **femur** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/femme-vs-femur)
- **fermi** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/femme-vs-fermi)
- **flume** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/femme-vs-flume)
- **Frome** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/femme-vs-frome)
- **fee** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fee-vs-femme)
- **fem** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fem-vs-femme)
- **fame** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fame-vs-femme)
- **FEMA** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fema-vs-femme)
- **female** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/female-vs-femme)

## Common misspellings (5)
`efmme`, `feme`, `femem`, `ffemme`, `fmeme`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/femme