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paume

French, noun

paume is a French feminine noun meaning “palm (of the hand)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of paumer. With an accent, paumé is a different word: “lost soul”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Face intérieure de la main, entre le poignet et les doigts”.

What does paume mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    femininepalm (of the hand)

  2. 2

    feminineellipsis of jeu de paume (“real tennis”)

verb

  1. 1

    first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive

  2. 2

    second-person singular imperative

adjective

as paumé
  1. 1

    informallost

  2. 2

    informalout of one's depth

  3. 3

    informalgodforsaken

noun

as paumé
  1. 1

    informalmasculinelost soul

  2. 2

    derogatoryinformalmasculinesad sack, loser, social misfit

verb

as paumé
  1. 1

    past participle of paumer

Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How French dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Face intérieure de la main, entre le poignet et les doigts. 2. Jeu de paume. 3. Ancienne unité de mesure de longueur valant environ environ 7,5 cm.

adjective: 1. Perdu, isolé, inaccessible. 2. Qui est dans un état de misère et de détresse autant matérielles que morales. 3. Dont la sommité s’ouvre et prend une forme rappelant les doigts et la paume de la main.

noun: 1. Personne psychologiquement perdue, désorientée.

The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.

Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of paume

  • paumes plural
  • paumée feminine
  • paumés masculine plural
  • paumées feminine plural

Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to paume

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is paume in French?

paume appears 2.8 times per million words in written French.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).