aide-mémoire

\ɛd.me.mwaʁ\

/\ɛd.me.mwaʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“aide-mémoire” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Tout ce qui aide la mémoire, moyen mnémotechnique, rappel.

Corpus desk

Index FR-aide-memoire · aide-mémoire · French

aide-mémoire · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-7 7 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "A" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for aide-mémoire
PropertyValue
Headwordaide-mémoire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɛd.me.mwaʁ\
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « aide-mémoire » en français

aide-mémoirereste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

aide-mémoire is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɛd.me.mwaʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for aide-mémoire, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is aide-mémoire, spelled A-I-D-E---M-É-M-O-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Tout ce qui aide la mémoire, moyen mnémotechnique, rappel.
  2. 2
    Ouvrage consacré à un sujet particulier et contenant les renseignements essentiels (formules, listes, etc.) que la mémoire pourrait ne pas retenir.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how aide-mémoire appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. La rime fut originairement un grossier artifice de mnémotechnie et le vers un aide-mémoire pour des gens qui ne savaient pas lire.
  2. Il [le maître d'hôtel] disait au garçon qui nous avait servis, avec un geste répété et apaisant du revers de la main, comme s'il voulait calmer un cheval prêt à prendre le mors aux dents : « N'allez pas trop fort (pour l'addition), allez doucement, très doucement. » Puis, comme le garçon partait muni de cet aide-mémoire, Aimé, craignant que ses recommanda…

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "aide-mémoire"?
"aide-mémoire" is spelled A-I-D-E---M-É-M-O-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛd.me.mwaʁ\.
What does "aide-mémoire" mean?
As a noun, "aide-mémoire" means: Tout ce qui aide la mémoire, moyen mnémotechnique, rappel.
How do you pronounce "aide-mémoire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "aide-mémoire" is \ɛd.me.mwaʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "aide-mémoire" come from?
"aide-mémoire" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list