imevsimpecConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#49,145
“ime” frequency rank
#47,952
“impec” frequency rank
97097
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ime impec
Definition Ma, mon. Impeccable.

Where the eye mixes ime and impec

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ime
5 ch
impec

Visual trap between ime and impec

A purely visual mix-up. ime (\ˈi.me\) and impec (\ɛ̃.pɛk\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 97097, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ime is recorded at frequency rank #49,145, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈi.me\. impec is at rank #47,952, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɛk\.

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 97097, this pair ranks #442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ime vs impec

Shared letters: eim. Private to "ime": -. Private to "impec": cp.

"ime" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "impec" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • impecimepc · immpec · impce · impecc · imppec · ipmec · mipec

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ime" and "impec" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈi.me\ versus \ɛ̃.pɛk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ime" or "impec"?
"impec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47,952 in our French list, against #49,145 for "ime". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ime" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "impec" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ime" and "impec" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ime vs isi". 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 #442 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