imitevsimitentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,506
“imite” frequency rank
#40,807
“imitent” frequency rank
59313
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature imite imitent
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de imiter. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de imiter.

Same sound, different letters: imite vs imitent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

5 ch
imite
7 ch
imitent

Same sound, different spelling - imite / imitent

This is the hard kind. imite and imitent are pronounced identically (\i.mit\) 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) - “imite” sits inside “imitent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59313, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

imite is recorded at frequency rank #18,506, classified as averb, pronounced \i.mit\. imitent is at rank #40,807, tagged as averb, pronounced \i.mit\.

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 59313, this pair ranks #103,861 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of imite vs imitent

Shared letters: eimt. Private to "imite": -. Private to "imitent": n.

"imite" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "imitent" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • imiteiimte · imiet · imitte · immite · imtie · miite
  • imitentiimtent · imietnt · imitennt · imitentt · imitetn · imitnet · imittent · immitent

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "imite" for "imitent" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\i.mit\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "imite" or "imitent"?
"imite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,506 in our French list, against #40,807 for "imitent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"imite" and "imitent" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "imite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "imitent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,861 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "imite" and "imitent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ime vs imite". 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 #103,861 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