lame

\lam\

/\lam\/ noun

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

The verdict

“lame” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #6,523. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#6,523
frequency rank, French
2,567
“L” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Solide aplati, d’épaisseur mince, feuille, tôle, plaque.

Corpus desk

Index FR-lame · lame · French

lame · rank #6,523 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,523
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,567
  • PHOTO-FINISH just

Nearest frequency peer: just (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « lame »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « lame » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

lame vs le
50% similar
lame vs LM
0% similar
lame vs Lee
25% similar

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

Key facts for lame
PropertyValue
Headwordlame
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\lam\
Letters4
Frequency rank#6,523
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « lame »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).lamese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « just » (#6,522), « localisation » (#6,524), « islamistes » (#6,521). Parmi 2,567 lemmes en « L », « lame » est au #6,523. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around lame (IPA \lam\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,523 among 2,567 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 13 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for lame, with forms such as "alme", "laem", and "lamme". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "le", "LM", "Lee", 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 is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is lame, spelled L-A-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Solide aplati, d’épaisseur mince, feuille, tôle, plaque.
  2. 2
    Fil d’or ou d’argent, plat, utilisé pour réaliser la trame des étoffes nommées lamé.
  3. 3
    Plaque de verre de faible épaisseur qui sert à déposer les objets dans l’observation microscopique.
  4. 4
    Partie mince et plate, sorte de feuillet qui garnit ou compose certains végétaux.
  5. 5
    Partie intermédiaire du pétale, située entre l'onglet et le limbe.
  6. 6
    Lame vertébrale : Portion plate et large d’une vertèbre située à l’arrière de celle-ci et reliant une apophyse transverse à l’apophyse épineuse.
  7. 7
    Planchette de bois mince.
  8. 8
    Partie d’un outil, d’une arme blanche, d’un instrument, propre à couper, tailler, trancher, raser, gratter, etc.
  9. 9
    Homme d’arme qui manie une épée ou un sabre.
  10. 10
    Vague de la mer qui s’étend en nappe.
  11. 11
    Pierre tombale.
  12. 12
    Carte des jeux de tarot.
  13. 13
    Type de serveur plat qui s’insère à chaud dans un module câblé pouvant en contenir plusieurs.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how lame appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. L’ouvrier se sert d'une lame courte et tranchante, engagée dans un manche d’os, avec laquelle il pratique, au bas de l’arbre, une entaille circulaire et assez profonde pour arriver jusqu'à l’aubier.
  2. Le poil étant focussé (1) avec le coulant à moitié tiré, en rentrant celui-ci, le poil se défocusse, mais le foyer (focus) de l’objectif s’allonge ce qui va nous permettre de baisser tout le système en nous servant de la crémaillère jusqu’à ce que nous apercevions les diatomées que nous avons placées sans ordre sur la lame de mica.

Synonyms

bladearcane

This word in other languages

sheet(English)lámina(Español)Blatt(Deutsch)lâmina(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • alme
  • laem
  • lamme
  • llame
  • lmae

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lame - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

alme2laem2lamme1llame1lmae2
Edit distance from "lame"

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 "lame"?
"lame" is spelled L-A-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \lam\.
What does "lame" mean?
As a noun, "lame" means: Solide aplati, d’épaisseur mince, feuille, tôle, plaque.
What words are commonly confused with "lame"?
"lame" is commonly confused with "le", "LM", "Lee". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "lame"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "lame" is \lam\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "lame" come from?
"lame" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lame", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

just#6,522nick#6,531idem#6,513nuls#6,533

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).

exil5 variantsduel5 variantssaga5 variantssida5 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list