émirvsemsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“émir” and “ems” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#21,214
“émir” frequency rank
#35,925
“ems” frequency rank
57139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature émir ems
Definition Chef d’une tribu ou d’un territoire dans les pays musulmans. Pluriel de em.

Where the eye mixes émir and ems

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
émir
3 ch
ems

Look-alike desk: émir vs ems

A purely visual mix-up. émir (\e.miʁ\) and ems (\ɛm\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

émir is recorded at frequency rank #21,214, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.miʁ\. ems is at rank #35,925, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛm\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 57139, this pair ranks #116,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of émir vs ems

Shared letters: m. Private to "émir": iré. Private to "ems": es.

"émir" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ems" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "émir" and "ems" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.miʁ\ versus \ɛm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "émir" vs "ems" - which ranks higher?
"émir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,214 in our French list, against #35,925 for "ems". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "émir" and "ems" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "émir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ems" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #116,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "émir" and "ems" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émit vs ems". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #116,816 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list