selfie
\sɛl.fi\
The verdict
“selfie” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #16,736 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #16,736
- frequency rank, French
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Autoportrait photographique, publié en général sur un réseau social.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | selfie |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \sɛl.fi\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #16,736 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “selfie” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for selfie is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɛl.fi\. Corpus data places it at rank #16,736 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for selfie, with forms such as "eslfie", "seflie", and "selfei". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "selle", "serie", "Selim", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No documented word history exists for this headword, 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 selfie, spelled S-E-L-F-I-E.
Definition
- 1Autoportrait photographique, publié en général sur un réseau social.
- 2Autobiographie.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eslfie,seflie,selfei,selffie,selife,sellfie,slefie,sselfie
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of selfie - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "selfie"?
What does "selfie" mean?
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Using “selfie”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-E-L-F-I-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \sɛl.fi\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “selle” - see the side-by-side comparison. selfie vs selle
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.