infâmevsinfâmesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#17,738
“infâme” frequency rank
#40,815
“infâmes” frequency rank
58553
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infâme infâmes
Definition Qui a mauvaise réputation, qui est célèbre en mauvaise part (sens étymologique). Pluriel de infâme.

Same sound, different letters: infâme vs infâmes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. infâme runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against infâmes's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
infâme
7 ch
infâmes

Ear matches; page differs - infâme and infâmes

This is the hard kind. infâme and infâmes are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.fɑm\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “infâme” sits inside “infâmes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infâme is recorded at frequency rank #17,738, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.fɑm\. infâmes is at rank #40,815, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.fɑm\.

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 58553, this pair ranks #108,385 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of infâme vs infâmes

Shared letters: efimnâ. Private to "infâme": -. Private to "infâmes": s.

"infâme" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "infâmes" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "infâme" and "infâmes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛ̃.fɑm\), 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, "infâme" or "infâmes"?
"infâme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,738 in our French list, against #40,815 for "infâmes". 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 "infâme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "infâmes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #108,385 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infâme" and "infâmes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infâmes vs infimes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #108,385 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