femme de ménage

\fam də me.naʒ\

/\fam də me.naʒ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“femme de ménage” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
15
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Femme responsable de la dépense et de l’entretien de son ménage.

Key facts for femme de ménage
PropertyValue
Headwordfemme de ménage
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fam də me.naʒ\
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “femme de ménage” sits in French frequency

femme de ménage falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

femme de ménage is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \fam də me.naʒ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for femme de ménage in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is femme de ménage, spelled F-E-M-M-E- -D-E- -M-É-N-A-G-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Femme responsable de la dépense et de l’entretien de son ménage.
  2. 2
    Femme qui nettoie des locaux contre rémunération.

Synonyms

femme d’ouvragehôtesse de propreténettoyeusepréposée au ménageresponsable du ménagetechnicienne de surfaceagente d’entretien

This word in other languages

cleaning lady(English)Putzfrau(Deutsch)

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

How do you spell "femme de ménage"?
"femme de ménage" is spelled F-E-M-M-E- -D-E- -M-É-N-A-G-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fam də me.naʒ\.
What does "femme de ménage" mean?
As a noun, "femme de ménage" means: Femme responsable de la dépense et de l’entretien de son ménage.
How do you pronounce "femme de ménage"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "femme de ménage" is \fam də me.naʒ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "femme de ménage" come from?
"femme de ménage" 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.

Using “femme de ménage”

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- -M-É-N-A-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \fam də me.naʒ\ (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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list