ze

/\zø\/ article

Letters

2 characters

Frequency Rank

#24,448

in French word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

ze is anFrencharticle. It means: Variante orthographique de the. Permet de signaler que l’objet dont on parle est unique, que c’est le meilleur, l’idéal. À l’oral, on en fait le mot principal de la phrase en lui donnant une intona... Pronounced \zø\. Often confused with zu and zi.

Key facts for ze
PropertyValue
Headwordze
LanguageFrench
Part of speechArticle
IPA\zø\
Letters2
Frequency rank#24,448
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of ze in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for ze is 2 letters long, classified as anarticle, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \zø\. Corpus data places it at rank #24,448 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.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for ze in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable French patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "zu", "zi", "zo", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is ze, spelled Z-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Variante orthographique de the. Permet de signaler que l’objet dont on parle est unique, que c’est le meilleur, l’idéal. À l’oral, on en fait le mot principal de la phrase en lui donnant une intonation très forte.
  2. 2
    Permet de mettre en emphase la personne dont on parle. Parfois complété de big.

Frequency rank: #24,448 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ze"?
"ze" is spelled Z-E. The IPA pronunciation is \zø\.
What does "ze" mean?
As an article, "ze" means: Variante orthographique de the. Permet de signaler que l’objet dont on parle est unique, que c’est le meilleur, l’idéal. À l’oral, on en fait le mot principal de la phrase en lui donnant une intona...
What words are commonly confused with "ze"?
"ze" is commonly confused with "zu", "zi", "zo". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ze"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ze" is \zø\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ze" come from?
"ze" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter Z in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.