esme

\ɛs.mə\

/\ɛs.mə\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“esme” is uncommon French (frequency #94,782 among 3,255 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#94,782
frequency rank, French
3,255
“E” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Appréciation, pensée, compte, calcul, jugement, avis.

Corpus desk

Index FR-esme · esme · French

esme · rank #94,782 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #94,782
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,255
  • PHOTO-FINISH escrimeurs

Nearest frequency peer: escrimeurs (-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 « esme »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « esme » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for esme
PropertyValue
Headwordesme
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɛs.mə\
Letters4
Frequency rank#94,782
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « esme » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).esmetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « escrimeurs » (#94,781), « Esteve » (#94,783), « ero » (#94,779). Parmi 3,255 lemmes en « E », « esme » est au #94,782. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

esme is uncommon French at frequency #94,782 among 3,255 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɛs.mə\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 8 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for esme, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. 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, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is esme, spelled E-S-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Appréciation, pensée, compte, calcul, jugement, avis.
  2. 2
    Raison.
  3. 3
    But, visée, intention, disposition, désir, espérance.
  4. 4
    Mesure → voir aime « mesure de vin ».
  5. 5
    Poids.
  6. 6
    Estime.
  7. 7
    Attention, considération.
  8. 8
    Direction, chemin.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. par esme, à vue de nez, approximativement.
  2. dire son esme, dire sa pensée, ce qu'on pense.

Synonyms

esmee

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

How do you spell "esme"?
"esme" is spelled E-S-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛs.mə\.
What does "esme" mean?
As a noun, "esme" means: Appréciation, pensée, compte, calcul, jugement, avis.
How do you pronounce "esme"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "esme" is \ɛs.mə\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "esme" come from?
"esme" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "esme", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

FPGA#94,821Duns#94,719gozo#94,853doma#94,708

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list