enflammevsenflammentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,930
“enflamme” frequency rank
#46,744
“enflamment” frequency rank
68674
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enflamme enflamment
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de enflammer. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de enflammer.

Same sound, different letters: enflamme vs enflamment

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. enflamme runs 8 letters (VCCCVCCV) against enflamment's 10 (VCCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
enflamme
10 ch
enflamment

Ear matches; page differs - enflamme and enflamment

This is the hard kind. enflamme and enflamment are pronounced identically (\ɑ̃.flam\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “enflamme” sits inside “enflamment”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enflamme is recorded at frequency rank #21,930, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.flam\. enflamment is at rank #46,744, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.flam\.

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 68674, this pair ranks #58,163 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of enflamme vs enflamment

Shared letters: aeflmn. Private to "enflamme": -. Private to "enflamment": t.

"enflamme" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCCV  ·  "enflamment" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enflamme ← efnlamme · enfalmme · enfflamme · enflame · enflamem · enfllamme · enflmame · enlfamme
  • enflamment ← efnlamment · enfalmment · enfflamment · enflamemnt · enflament · enflammennt · enflammentt · enflammetn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "enflamme" and "enflamment" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɑ̃.flam\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "enflamme" vs "enflamment" - which ranks higher?
"enflamme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,930 in our French list, against #46,744 for "enflamment". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "enflamme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enflamment" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,163 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enflamme" and "enflamment" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enflammées vs enflamment". 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 #58,163 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