avoir faim
\a.vwaʁ fɛ̃\
The verdict
“avoir faim” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ressentir le besoin ou l’envie de manger.
Corpus desk
Index FR-avoir-faim · avoir faim · French
avoir faim · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 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.
| 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) |
Longue queue: rang de « avoir faim » en français
Rare enough to double-check
avoir faim is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \a.vwaʁ fɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how avoir faim appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Petite et misérable gargote de la rue Sainte-Geneviève où je me nourrissais jadis si mal que j’en ai, quand j’y pense, encore faim, je ne vous oublie pas, ni vous grand réfectoire des pauvres de la place des Deux-Ponts à Lyon, […].
Quand j’avais faim, tu m’as donné à manger. Quand j’avais soif, tu m’as donné à boire.
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.