infâmesvsinfimeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,815
“infâmes” frequency rank
#17,164
“infime” frequency rank
57979
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infâmes infime
Definition Pluriel de infâme. Qui est placé le plus bas.

Where the eye mixes infâmes and infime

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. infâmes runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against infime's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
infâmes
6 ch
infime

Visual trap between infâmes and infime

A purely visual mix-up. infâmes (\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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57979, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infâmes is recorded at frequency rank #40,815, 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 57979, this pair ranks #111,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of infâmes vs infime

Shared letters: efimn. Private to "infâmes": sâ. Private to "infime": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • infime ← ifnime · inffime · infiem · infimme · infmie · inifme · innfime · nifime

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "infâmes" and "infime" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.fɑm\ versus \ɛ̃.fim\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "infâmes" or "infime" show up more?
"infime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,164 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.

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 "infâmes" 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 #111,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infâmes" and "infime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infâmes vs infimes". 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 #111,775 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