lemvslemmeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,348
“lem” frequency rank
#48,640
“lemme” frequency rank
88988
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lem lemme
Definition Membre, partie du corps. Proposition dont la démonstration est nécessaire pour une autre proposition qui doit la suivre.

Letter map: lem vs lemme

Shared letters muted; letters that set lem and lemme apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
lem
5 ch
lemme

Pair insight - lem / lemme

lem and lemme are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “lem” sits inside “lemme”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88988, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lem is recorded at frequency rank #40,348, classified as anoun. lemme is at rank #48,640, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛm\.

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 88988, this pair ranks #6,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lem vs lemme

Shared letters: elm. Private to "lem": -. Private to "lemme": -.

"lem" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lemme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lemmeelmme · leme · lemem · llemme · lmeme

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lem" and "lemme" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “lem” sits inside “lemme”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "lem" vs "lemme" - which ranks higher?
"lem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,348 in our French list, against #48,640 for "lemme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lem" and "lemme".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lemme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lem" and "lemme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lemme vs leste". 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 #6,308 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