Which to use
“contamine” and “contaminée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,191
- “contamine” frequency rank
- #28,499
- “contaminée” frequency rank
- 69690
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contamine | contaminée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de contaminer. | Participe passé féminin singulier de contaminer. |
Where the eye mixes contamine and contaminée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. contamine runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCV) against contaminée's 10 (CVCCVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between contamine and contaminée
A purely visual mix-up. contamine (\kɔ̃.ta.min\) and contaminée (\kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69690, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contamine is recorded at frequency rank #41,191, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.ta.min\. contaminée is at rank #28,499, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\.
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 69690, this pair ranks #54,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of contamine vs contaminée
Shared letters: aceimnot. Private to "contamine": -. Private to "contaminée": é.
"contamine" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV · "contaminée" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- contamine ← ccontamine · cnotamine · conatmine · conntamine · contaimne · contamien · contaminne · contammine
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "contamine" and "contaminée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "contamine" or "contaminée"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "contamine" and "contaminée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "contamine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contaminée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contamine" and "contaminée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contamine vs contaminées". 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 #54,200 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.