membrane

\mɑ̃.bʁan\

/\mɑ̃.bʁan\/ noun

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

The verdict

“membrane” has 12 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #15,439. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#15,439
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Tissu organique animal servant à former, envelopper, séparer ou tapisser des cellules ou des organes.

Corpus desk

Index FR-membrane · membrane · French

membrane · rank #15,439 · 12 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #15,439
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH maçon

Nearest frequency peer: maçon (-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 « membrane »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « membrane » 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).

membrane vs membre
75% similar
membrane vs membranes
89% similar

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

Key facts for membrane
PropertyValue
Headwordmembrane
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mɑ̃.bʁan\
Letters8
Frequency rank#15,439
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « membrane »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).membranese 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 « maçon » (#15,438), « menait » (#15,440), « Mayotte » (#15,437). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « membrane » est au #15,439. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around membrane (IPA \mɑ̃.bʁan\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #15,439 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for membrane, with forms such as "emmbrane", "mebmrane", and "membarne". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "membre", "membranes", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is membrane, spelled M-E-M-B-R-A-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Tissu organique animal servant à former, envelopper, séparer ou tapisser des cellules ou des organes.
  2. 2
    Enveloppe de certaines parties d’une plante.
  3. 3
    la membrane vibrante d’un haut-parleur, d’un instrument de musique — tambour, timbale, etc.
  4. 4
    Planchettes qui se placent en dessus et en dessous d’une pile de cahiers que l’on met en presse.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Enfin, il faut noter qu’une sonde fluorescente peut pénétrer par des mécanismes différents selon le règne cellulaire considéré : ainsi le jaune Lucifer (Lucifer Yellow) déclaré imperméant aux membranes animales est en fait transporté activement par une membrane de cellule végétale (Cole et al, 1991).
  2. On constate, en outre, que la chauve-souris peut voler malgré l’ablation d’une notable étendue de la membrane de ses ailes, pourvu que la partie restante corresponde aux espaces interdigitaux.

This word in other languages

membrane(English)membrana(Español)Membran(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • emmbrane
  • mebmrane
  • membarne
  • membbrane
  • membraen
  • membranne
  • membrnae
  • membrrane
  • memmbrane
  • memrbane
  • mmebrane
  • mmembrane

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of membrane - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

emmbrane2mebmrane2membarne2membbrane1membraen2membranne1membrnae2membrrane1
Edit distance from "membrane"

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 "membrane"?
"membrane" is spelled M-E-M-B-R-A-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \mɑ̃.bʁan\.
What does "membrane" mean?
As a noun, "membrane" means: Tissu organique animal servant à former, envelopper, séparer ou tapisser des cellules ou des organes.
What words are commonly confused with "membrane"?
"membrane" is commonly confused with "membre", "membranes". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "membrane"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "membrane" is \mɑ̃.bʁan\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "membrane" come from?
"membrane" 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 "membrane", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

marraine#15,435maquette#15,434minières#15,445malgache#15,432

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).

millionnaire12 variantslangages12 variantslanceurs12 variantspiscines12 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list