infâmevsintimeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#17,738
“infâme” frequency rank
#5,469
“intime” frequency rank
23207
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infâme intime
Definition Qui a mauvaise réputation, qui est célèbre en mauvaise part (sens étymologique). Profondément intérieur, en parlant surtout de ce qui fait l’essence réelle d’une chose.

Where the eye mixes infâme and intime

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. infâme and intime follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
infâme
6 ch
intime

Look-alike desk: infâme vs intime

A purely visual mix-up. infâme (\ɛ̃.fɑm\) and intime (\ɛ̃.tim\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23207, 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\. intime is at rank #5,469, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tim\.

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 23207, this pair ranks #353,798 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of infâme vs intime

Shared letters: eimn. Private to "infâme": fâ. Private to "intime": t.

"infâme" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "intime" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intime ← initme · inntime · intiem · intimme · intmie · inttime · itnime · nitime

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "infâme" and "intime" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.fɑm\ versus \ɛ̃.tim\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "infâme" vs "intime" - which ranks higher?
"intime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,469 in our French list, against #17,738 for "infâme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "infâme" and "intime" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "infâme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #353,798 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infâme" and "intime" 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 #353,798 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