Which to use
“infâme” and “infime” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,738
- “infâme” frequency rank
- #17,164
- “infime” frequency rank
- 34902
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | infâme | infime |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a mauvaise réputation, qui est célèbre en mauvaise part (sens étymologique). | Qui est placé le plus bas. |
Where the eye mixes infâme and infime
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. infâme and infime follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: infâme vs infime
A purely visual mix-up. infâme (\ɛ̃.fɑm\) and infime (\ɛ̃.fim\) 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 a single letter - â in “infâme” becomes i in “infime”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34902, 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\. infime is at rank #17,164, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.fim\.
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 34902, this pair ranks #280,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of infâme vs infime
Shared letters: efimn. Private to "infâme": â. Private to "infime": -.
"infâme" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "infime" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- infime ← ifnime · inffime · infiem · infimme · infmie · inifme · innfime · nifime
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "infâme" and "infime" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "infâme" or "infime"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "infâme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "infime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #280,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "infâme" and "infime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "income vs infâme". 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 #280,580 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.