madame
/məˈdæm/
"madame" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“madame” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,627 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,627
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Alternative form of madam.
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 | madame |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /məˈdæm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #9,627 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “madame” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for madame is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /məˈdæm/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,627 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Alternative form of madam.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for madame, with forms such as "amdame", "maadme", and "madaem". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "made", "madge", "manage", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French madame, from Old French ma dame (“my lady”). Doublet of madam and Madonna. The correct English form is madame, spelled M-A-D-A-M-E.
Definition
- 1Alternative form of madam.
Etymology
Borrowed from French madame, from Old French ma dame (“my lady”). Doublet of madam and Madonna.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amdame,maadme,madaem,madamme,maddame,madmae,mdaame,mmadame
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of madame - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "madame"?
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Using “madame”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-D-A-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /məˈdæm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “made” - see the side-by-side comparison. madame vs made
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.