hem
^((h aspiré))\ɛm\
The verdict
“hem” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #35,982) as an interjection. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #35,982
- frequency rank, French
- 1,969
- “H” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dont on se sert pour attirer l’attention, pour appeler.
Corpus desk
Index FR-hem · hem · French
hem · rank #35,982 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #35,982
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,969
- PHOTO-FINISH heath
Nearest frequency peer: heath (-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.
Voisins de fréquence du confusable « hem »
Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous
- Hahn
Hahn
64,022 corpus weight
- heath
heath
64,020 corpus weight
- hem
hem
64,019 corpus weight
- herb
herb
64,018 corpus weight
- hin
hin
64,016 corpus weight
- hipster
hipster
64,015 corpus weight
What this shows Les barres placent « hem » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hem |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | ^((h aspiré))\ɛm\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #35,982 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Rang de corpus près des confusables de « hem »
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for hem is neighbouring look-alikes ("hi", "hp", …), not just typos; it is aninterjection pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɛm\. Frequency #35,982 among 1,969 “H” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for hem, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "hi", "hp", "Hs", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is hem, spelled H-E-M.
Definition
- 1Dont on se sert pour attirer l’attention, pour appeler.
- 2Exprime aussi le doute, l’hésitation, la défiance.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how hem appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Hem, hem, venez ici.
Un léger hem ! hem ! de la fée les tira de leur sommeil ; le prince fut le premier à ouvrir les yeux : il se jeta aux genoux de la fée et lui adressa des remerciements tellement vifs qu’elle en fut attendrie.
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); 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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hem", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).