Which to use
“gem” and “gemme” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,782
- “gem” frequency rank
- #35,963
- “gemme” frequency rank
- 76745
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gem | gemme |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gemme. | Pierre fine, pierre précieuse, pierre ornementale ou synthétique répondant à des critères de dureté, d’éclat, de couleur et de transparence. |
Where the eye mixes gem and gemme
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between gem and gemme
A purely visual mix-up. gem (\dʒɛm\) and gemme (\ʒɛm\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “gem” sits inside “gemme”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76745, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gem is recorded at frequency rank #40,782, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʒɛm\. gemme is at rank #35,963, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒɛm\.
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 76745, this pair ranks #30,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gem vs gemme
Shared letters: egm. Private to "gem": -. Private to "gemme": -.
"gem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "gemme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- gemme ← egmme · geme · gemem · ggemme · gmeme
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "gem" and "gemme" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "gem" or "gemme"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "gem" and "gemme" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gemme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gem" and "gemme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gem vs gx". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #30,275 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.