impair

\ɛ̃.pɛʁ\

/\ɛ̃.pɛʁ\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“impair” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #25,687. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#25,687
frequency rank, French
3,561
“I” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui n’est pas pair, qui n’est pas divisible par deux, en parlant d’un nombre entier.

Corpus desk

Index FR-impair · impair · French

impair · rank #25,687 · 8 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #25,687
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,561
  • PHOTO-FINISH imitant

Nearest frequency peer: imitant (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « impair »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « impair » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

impair vs impie
67% similar
impair vs impur
67% similar
impair vs impairs
86% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for impair
PropertyValue
Headwordimpair
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ɛ̃.pɛʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#25,687
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « impair »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).impairse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « imitant » (#25,686), « impardonnable » (#25,688), « ignorée » (#25,685). Parmi 3,561 lemmes en « I », « impair » est au #25,687. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around impair (IPA \ɛ̃.pɛʁ\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #25,687 among 3,561 “I” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for impair, with forms such as "imapir", "immpair", and "impairr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "impie", "impur", "impairs", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

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. The correct French form is impair, spelled I-M-P-A-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui n’est pas pair, qui n’est pas divisible par deux, en parlant d’un nombre entier.
  2. 2
    Qui caractérise une fonction mathématique dont la représentation graphique est symétrique par rapport à l’origine.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how impair appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Cette étape est plausible , car NO est une espèce à nombre impair d'électrons, et deux molécules peuvent former une liaison covalente quand elle se rencontrent. Le fait que le dimère N₂0₂ existe aussi dans le solide rend la suggestion plausible.
  2. ARGAN : Monsieur, combien est-ce qu'il faut mettre de grains de sel dans un œuf ? MONSIEUR DIAFOIRUS : Six, huit, dix, par les nombres pairs, comme dans les médicaments, par les nombres impairs.

Synonyms

non-pair

Antonyms

pair

This word in other languages

odd(English)impar(Español)ungerade(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • imapir
  • immpair
  • impairr
  • impari
  • impiar
  • imppair
  • ipmair
  • mipair

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of impair - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

imapir2immpair1impairr1impari2impiar2imppair1ipmair2mipair2
Edit distance from "impair"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "impair"?
"impair" is spelled I-M-P-A-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛ̃.pɛʁ\.
What does "impair" mean?
As an adjective, "impair" means: Qui n’est pas pair, qui n’est pas divisible par deux, en parlant d’un nombre entier.
What words are commonly confused with "impair"?
"impair" is commonly confused with "impie", "impur", "impairs". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "impair"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "impair" is \ɛ̃.pɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "impair" come from?
"impair" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "impair", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

grimpé#25,669gillet#25,666kindle#25,709gaudin#25,662

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

haché8 variantslouent8 variantsMitch8 variantsnuisent8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list