ramie
/ˈɹæmi/noun
ramie is a noun meaning “A tall, tropical Asian perennial herb, of species Boehmeria nivea, cultivated for its fibrous stems” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-A-M-I-E, and it appears about once in every 24 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Ramie, the name). The plural of ramie is ramies.
What does ramie mean?
noun
- 1
A tall, tropical Asian perennial herb, of species Boehmeria nivea, cultivated for its fibrous stems.
- 2
The fibre extracted from this plant known especially for its ability to hold shape, reduce wrinkling, and introduce a silky lustre used to make textiles, fishing nets, upholstery, etc.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce ramie?
- UK /ˈɹæmi/
- US /ˈɹæmi/
- US /ˈɹeɪmi/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ramie.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ramie
- ramies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is ramie?
Ramie appears about once in every 24 million words in written English, the 148,541st most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Ramie, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Ramie in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Boehmeria nivea:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Ramie |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ramie come from?
From Malay rami.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).