nee
\niː\
The verdict
“nee” is uncommon French (frequency #54,749 among 1,563 “N” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,749
- frequency rank, French
- 1,563
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qualifie le nom de jeune fille d’une femme.
Corpus desk
Index FR-nee · nee · French
nee · rank #54,749 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,749
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,563
- PHOTO-FINISH nationalisé
Nearest frequency peer: nationalisé (-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.
Rangs de longue queue près de « nee »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Mythos
Mythos
45,256 corpus weight
- médiatiquem…
médiatiquement
45,255 corpus weight
- Nabokov
Nabokov
45,254 corpus weight
- nationalisé
nationalisé
45,253 corpus weight
- nee
nee
45,252 corpus weight
- nems
nems
45,248 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « nee » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nee |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \niː\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #54,749 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « nee » en français
Rare enough to double-check
nee is uncommon French at frequency #54,749 among 1,563 “N” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \niː\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for nee, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is nee, spelled N-E-E.
Definition
- 1Qualifie le nom de jeune fille d’une femme.
- 2Utilisé pour citer un ancien nom.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how nee appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Mrs. Smith, nee Jones. (Madame Smith, née Jones)
Since the name change, Butch (nee Frances) seems more tough and self-assured. (Depuis le changement de nom, Butch (née Frances) semble plus endurcie et assurée)
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 "nee", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).