elme
\ɛlm\
The verdict
“elme” is uncommon French (frequency #81,990 among 3,255 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #81,990
- frequency rank, French
- 3,255
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Se dit de feux qui apparaissent aux extrémités des mâts des navires, en particulier après une tempête. → voir feu de Saint-Elme
Corpus desk
Index FR-elme · elme · French
elme · rank #81,990 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #81,990
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,255
- PHOTO-FINISH embellis
Nearest frequency peer: embellis (+1 rank slots)
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.
Rangs de longue queue près de « elme »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- eille
eille
18,015 corpus weight
- Elam
Elam
18,014 corpus weight
- elme
elme
18,011 corpus weight
- embellis
embellis
18,010 corpus weight
- emprunta
emprunta
18,009 corpus weight
- enchaîna
enchaîna
18,008 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « elme » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | elme |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɛlm\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #81,990 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « elme » en français
Rare enough to double-check
elme is uncommon French at frequency #81,990 among 3,255 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɛlm\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Se dit de feux qui apparaissent aux extrémités des mâts des navires, en particulier après une tempête. → voir feu de Saint-Elme".
elme has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is elme, spelled E-L-M-E.
Definition
- 1Se dit de feux qui apparaissent aux extrémités des mâts des navires, en particulier après une tempête. → voir feu de Saint-Elme
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how elme appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les feux follets sont la même chose que le feu Saint-Elme; mais au lieu que celui-ci se voit sur la mer, les feux follets paroissent sur la terre, particulièrement en automne dans les endroits marécageux, dans les cimetières, etc. Tous les deux doivent leur origine à la même cause, l’électricité.
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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "elme", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).