femme

\fam\

/\fam\/ noun

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

The verdict

“femme” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #213. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#213
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Être humain adulte de genre ou de sexe féminin (par opposition à fille, fillette, femme-enfant).

Corpus desk

Index FR-femme · femme · French

femme · rank #213 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #213
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH personnes

Nearest frequency peer: personnes (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « femme »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « femme » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

femme vs fête
40% similar
femme vs fume
60% similar
femme vs fève
40% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for femme
PropertyValue
Headwordfemme
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fam\
Letters5
Frequency rank#213
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « femme »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).femmese place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « personnes » (#212), « nom » (#214), « grande » (#211). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « femme » est au #213. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around femme (IPA \fam\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #213 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for femme, with forms such as "efmme", "feme", and "femem". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fête", "fume", "fève", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

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 femme, spelled F-E-M-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Être humain adulte de genre ou de sexe féminin (par opposition à fille, fillette, femme-enfant).
  2. 2
    Conjointe ; épouse ; partenaire.
  3. 3
    Personne adulte de genre féminin, qui possède les qualités supposées des femmes.
  4. 4
    Personnel féminin. → voir femme de ménage et femme de chambre.
  5. 5
    Avant ou après un nom épicène pour lever une ambiguïté.
  6. 6
    Homo sapiens femelle.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais peu avant sa vingtième année, quand de jeune fille elle devint femme et vit s’effiler sous les seins le premier pli charmant de la maturité qui va naître, il lui vint tout à coup des ambitions.
  2. Mes tempes battent ; toute ma chair va à cette femme presque nue et charmante dans le matin et dans le transparent vêtement qui enferme la douce odeur d’elle.

Synonyms

blanc bonnetbonne-femmecréaturecriaturedamefille d’Èvemeuffeumeugadjigazièregonzessegrognassemoussonanapersonne du sexesouristypesse

This word in other languages

woman(English)mujer(Español)Frau(Deutsch)mulher(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • efmme
  • feme
  • femem
  • ffemme
  • fmeme

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of femme - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

efmme2feme1femem2ffemme1fmeme2
Edit distance from "femme"

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 "femme"?
"femme" is spelled F-E-M-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fam\.
What does "femme" mean?
As a noun, "femme" means: Être humain adulte de genre ou de sexe féminin (par opposition à fille, fillette, femme-enfant).
What words are commonly confused with "femme"?
"femme" is commonly confused with "fête", "fume", "fève". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "femme"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "femme" is \fam\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "femme" come from?
"femme" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "femme", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

celui#209point#217reste#205cours#202

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).

seul5 variantsveux5 variantsvrai5 variantspeux5 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list