PME

\pe.ɛm.ə\

/\pe.ɛm.ə\/ noun

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

The verdict

“PME” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #5,800) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#5,800
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Entreprise petite ou moyenne (dont la taille est supérieure à 10 salariés et inférieure à 250 salariés et dont le chiffre d’affaires annuel n’excède pas 50 millions d’euros).

Corpus desk

Index FR-pme · PME · French

PME · rank #5,800 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,800
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH perdus

Nearest frequency peer: perdus (-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 « PME »

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

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « PME » 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).

PME vs pu
0% similar
PME vs PS
33% similar
PME vs PQ
33% similar

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

Key facts for PME
PropertyValue
HeadwordPME
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pe.ɛm.ə\
Letters3
Frequency rank#5,800
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « PME »

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

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « perdus » (#5,799), « Po » (#5,801), « patrons » (#5,798). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « PME » est au #5,800. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for PME is neighbouring look-alikes ("pu", "PS", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \pe.ɛm.ə\. Frequency #5,800 among 6,826 “P” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

No misspelling variants are generated for PME in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pu", "PS", "PQ", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is PME, spelled P-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Entreprise petite ou moyenne (dont la taille est supérieure à 10 salariés et inférieure à 250 salariés et dont le chiffre d’affaires annuel n’excède pas 50 millions d’euros).
  2. 2
    Pour désigner une entreprise appartenant la catégorie des PME.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le "pacte PME" [vise] à inciter les administrations et les grands groupes à compter davantage de PME parmi leurs fournisseurs (Le Monde, « Le CEA lance un appel aux PME », 25 avril 2006).
  2. Les règles de l’UE en matière d’aides d’État permettent aux États membres de prendre des mesures rapides et efficaces pour aider les citoyens et les entreprises (en particulier les PME) qui sont confrontés à des difficultés économiques en raison de l’épidémie de COVID‑19.

Synonyms

petites et moyennes entreprises

This word in other languages

SME(English)pyme(Español)

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 "PME"?
"PME" is spelled P-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pe.ɛm.ə\.
What does "PME" mean?
As a noun, "PME" means: Entreprise petite ou moyenne (dont la taille est supérieure à 10 salariés et inférieure à 250 salariés et dont le chiffre d’affaires annuel n’excède pas 50 millions d’euros).
What words are commonly confused with "PME"?
"PME" is commonly confused with "pu", "PS", "PQ". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "PME"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "PME" is \pe.ɛm.ə\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "PME" come from?
"PME" 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 "PME", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

gré#5,767fun#5,870hum#5,875rap#5,913

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list