# film

> English word · Noun · IPA /fɪlm/ · frequency rank #633

## Definitions
1. A thin layer of some substance; a pellicle; a membranous covering, causing opacity.
2. A medium used to capture images in a camera.
3. A visual art form that consists of a sequence of still images preserved on a recording medium to give the illusion of motion; movies generally.
4. The sequence of still images itself, which produces a moving image when played; a movie.
5. A slender thread, such as that of a cobweb.

## Etymology
From Middle English filme, from Old English filmen (“film, membrane, thin skin, foreskin”), from Proto-West Germanic *filmīn-, from Proto-Germanic *filmīn- (“thin skin, membrane”) (compare Proto-Germanic *felma- (“skin, hide”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pél-mo- (“membrane”), from *pel- (“to cover, skin”). Cognate with Old Frisian filmene (“thin skin, human skin”), Middle Dutch velm, vilm (“fleece, film, membrane”), Old High German felm (“peel, skin, wrap”), Old English *felma (in ǣġerfelma (“egg membrane”)). Related also to Dutch vel (“sheet, skin”), Borrowed from Latin vēlum (“a cloth, covering, awning, curtain, veil”). German Fell (“skin, hide, fur”), Swedish fjäll (“fur blanket, cloth, scale”), Norwegian fille (“rag, cloth”), Lithuanian plėvē (“membrane, scab”), Russian плева́ (plevá, “membrane”), Ancient Greek πέλμα (pélma, “sole of the foot”). More at fell. Sense of a thin coat of something is 1577, extended by 1845 to the coating of chemical gel on photographic plates. By 1895 this also meant the coating plus the paper or celluloid.

## Easily confused with
- **FL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fl)
- **FM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fm)
- **fit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fit)
- **fix** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fix)
- **fly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fly)
- **flu** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-flu)
- **fin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fin)
- **FLA** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fla)
- **fir** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fir)
- **Flo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-flo)
- **FIS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fis)
- **FTL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-ftl)
- **from** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-from)
- **find** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-find)
- **full** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-full)
- **five** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-five)
- **form** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-form)
- **fire** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fire)
- **fine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fine)
- **fish** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/film-vs-fish)

## Common misspellings (6)
`ffilm`, `fillm`, `filmm`, `fiml`, `flim`, `iflm`

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