Which to use
“alarme” and “allume” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,831
- “alarme” frequency rank
- #9,264
- “allume” frequency rank
- 15095
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | alarme | allume |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Signal pour faire courir aux armes ou pour appeler au secours. | Petit morceau de bois qui sert à allumer une cheminée, un poêle, etc. |
Where the eye mixes alarme and allume
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. alarme (VCVCCV) and allume (VCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: alarme vs allume
A purely visual mix-up. alarme (\a.laʁm\) and allume (\a.lym\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15095, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
alarme is recorded at frequency rank #5,831, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.laʁm\. allume is at rank #9,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.lym\.
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 15095, this pair ranks #393,876 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of alarme vs allume
Shared letters: aelm. Private to "alarme": r. Private to "allume": u.
"alarme" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV · "allume" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "alarme" and "allume" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "alarme" or "allume"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "alarme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "allume" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #393,876 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "alarme" and "allume" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alloue vs allume". 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 #393,876 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.