plume

\plym\

/\plym\/ noun

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

The verdict

“plume” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #5,381. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#5,381
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Phanère corné, garni de barbes et de duvet, qui couvre le corps des oiseaux.

Corpus desk

Index FR-plume · plume · French

plume · rank #5,381 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,381
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH plu

Nearest frequency peer: plu (-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 « plume »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « plume » 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).

plume vs PME
0% similar
plume vs pue
60% similar
plume vs plus
60% similar

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

Key facts for plume
PropertyValue
Headwordplume
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\plym\
Letters5
Frequency rank#5,381
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « plume »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).plumese 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 « plu » (#5,380), « poignée » (#5,382), « planche » (#5,379). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « plume » est au #5,381. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around plume (IPA \plym\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #5,381 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 12 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for plume, with forms such as "lpume", "pllume", and "plmue". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PME", "pue", "plus", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is plume, spelled P-L-U-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Phanère corné, garni de barbes et de duvet, qui couvre le corps des oiseaux.
  2. 2
    Plume dont on se servait pour écrire.
  3. 3
    Plumage.
  4. 4
    Amas de plumes.
  5. 5
    Oiseaux.
  6. 6
    Mine, bout d’un stylo, lame de métal pointue et fendue, en forme de bec de plume qu’on emploie pour écrire.
  7. 7
    Activité d’écrire en tant qu’écrivain ou journaliste ou dans le but de le devenir.
  8. 8
    Manière d’écrire, style.
  9. 9
    Auteur.
  10. 10
    Fellation.
  11. 11
    Vague produite par l’étrave plongeant dans une lame.
  12. 12
    Étudiante ayant passé le rite du baptême qui bizute les bleus ; équivalent féminin du poil.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Léger comme une plume.
  2. […] : puis il […] se coiffa d’un toquet de velours noir sans plume ni pierreries, s’enveloppa d’un manteau de couleur sombre, […].

This word in other languages

feather(English)pluma(Español)Feder(Deutsch)aparo(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • lpume
  • pllume
  • plmue
  • pluem
  • plumme
  • pplume
  • pulme

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

lpume2pllume1plmue2pluem2plumme1pplume1pulme2
Edit distance from "plume"

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 "plume"?
"plume" is spelled P-L-U-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \plym\.
What does "plume" mean?
As a noun, "plume" means: Phanère corné, garni de barbes et de duvet, qui couvre le corps des oiseaux.
What words are commonly confused with "plume"?
"plume" is commonly confused with "PME", "pue", "plus". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "plume"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "plume" is \plym\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "plume" come from?
"plume" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "plume", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

perds#5,378parcs#5,375pouce#5,388liège#5,360

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

Liban7 variantsBrise7 variantscoucou7 variantscaisses7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list