avoir faim
\a.vwaʁ fɛ̃\
The verdict
“avoir faim” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Ressentir le besoin ou l’envie de manger.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | avoir faim |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \a.vwaʁ fɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “avoir faim” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for avoir faim is 10 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \a.vwaʁ fɛ̃\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Ressentir le besoin ou l’envie de manger.".
avoir faim doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is avoir faim, spelled A-V-O-I-R- -F-A-I-M.
Definition
- 1Ressentir le besoin ou l’envie de manger.
Synonyms
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
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Using “avoir faim”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is A-V-O-I-R- -F-A-I-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \a.vwaʁ fɛ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French 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.