gêne
French, noun
gêne is spelled G-Ê-N-E (4 letters) and appears 15 times per million words in written French, the 4,746th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Gêne is a French feminine noun meaning “embarrassment” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of gêner. With an accent, gène is a different word: “gene (unit of heredity)”. With an accent, gêné is a different word: “in financial difficulty”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Ce qui met à l’étroit, mal à l’aise, ce qui empêche d’agir librement”.
What does gêne mean in English?
noun
- 1
feminineembarrassment
- 2
femininediscomfort, inconvenience
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
noun
- 1
masculinegene (unit of heredity)
adjective
- 1
in financial difficulty
- 2
shy
suffix
- 1
-gen, -genous, -genic
verb
- 1
past participle of gêner
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Unité de base de l’information biologique qui se transmet de génération en génération.
noun: 1. Marc de raisin.
suffix: 1. Qui génère, qui forme.
noun: 1. Ce qui met à l’étroit, mal à l’aise, ce qui empêche d’agir librement. 2. Embarras que cause le séjour d’une personne chez une autre. 3. Contrainte fâcheuse, état pénible où l’on se trouve. 4. Sentiment de pénibilité, d’embarras ou de honte à l’idée d’être une charge ou un obstacle pour autrui.
adjective: 1. Qui éprouve de la gêne, de la honte, de l'embarras. 2. Timide. 3. Qui manque d'argent pour faire face à ses obligations.
noun: 1. Quelqu’un qui éprouve de la gêne, de la honte.
noun: 1. Génération.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of gêne
- gènes plural
- gênée feminine
- gênés masculine plural
- gênées feminine plural
- gênes plural
- gêne
- génés plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to gêne
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is gêne in French?
gêne appears 15 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).