femme de lettres
\fam də lɛtʁ\
The verdict
“femme de lettres” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Écrivaine, littératrice.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | femme de lettres |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \fam də lɛtʁ\ |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “femme de lettres” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for femme de lettres is 16 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \fam də lɛtʁ\. 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: "Écrivaine, littératrice.".
femme de lettres has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No explicit etymology string is stored 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 de lettres, spelled F-E-M-M-E- -D-E- -L-E-T-T-R-E-S.
Definition
- 1Écrivaine, littératrice.
This word in other languages
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 “femme de lettres”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is F-E-M-M-E- -D-E- -L-E-T-T-R-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \fam də lɛtʁ\ (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.