Which to use
“impôt” is a noun and “impur” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,227
- “impôt” frequency rank
- #30,648
- “impur” frequency rank
- 32875
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impôt | impur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Prélèvement pécuniaire, établi par la loi, obligatoire et sans contrepartie directe, perçu par l’État ou les collectivités publiques afin de financer les dépenses publiques. | Qui n’est pas pur. |
Where the eye mixes impôt and impur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. impôt and impur follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between impôt and impur
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: impôt is \ɛ̃.po\ while impur is \ɛ̃.pyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32875, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
impôt is recorded at frequency rank #2,227, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.po\. impur is at rank #30,648, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pyʁ\.
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 32875, this pair ranks #294,371 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of impôt vs impur
Shared letters: imp. Private to "impôt": tô. Private to "impur": ru.
"impôt" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "impur" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- impur ← immpur · imppur · impru · impurr · imupr · ipmur · mipur
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "impôt" and "impur" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "impôt" vs "impur" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "impôt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "impur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #294,371 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "impôt" and "impur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impec vs impur". 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 #294,371 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.