ke

\ˈke\

/\ˈke\/ verb

The verdict

“ke” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #14,717) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#14,717
frequency rank, French
737
“K” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe kam.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ke · ke · French

ke · rank #14,717 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #14,717
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 737
  • PHOTO-FINISH Katherine

Nearest frequency peer: Katherine (-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 « ke »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « ke » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

ke vs km
50% similar
ke vs kg
50% similar
ke vs ki
50% similar

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

Key facts for ke
PropertyValue
Headwordke
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ˈke\
Letters2
Frequency rank#14,717
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « ke »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.kese 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 « Katherine » (#14,716), « Kenny » (#14,718), « latéraux » (#14,719). Parmi 737 lemmes en « K », « ke » est au #14,717. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ke is neighbouring look-alikes ("km", "kg", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced \ˈke\. Frequency #14,717 among 737 “K” headwords. Gloss: "Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe kam.".

Zero misspellings are on record for ke in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "km", "kg", "ki", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is ke, spelled K-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe kam.

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 "ke"?
"ke" is spelled K-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈke\.
What does "ke" mean?
As a verb, "ke" means: Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe kam.
What words are commonly confused with "ke"?
"ke" is commonly confused with "km", "kg", "ki". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ke"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ke" is \ˈke\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ke" come from?
"ke" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list