infimesvsinfirmerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: infimes is a adjective, infirmer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“infimes” is an adjective and “infirmer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,870
“infimes” frequency rank
#30,217
“infirmer” frequency rank
68087
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infimes infirmer
Definition Pluriel de infime. Affaiblir, diminuer, ôter la force, la valeur d’une chose.

Where the eye mixes infimes and infirmer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
infimes
8 ch
infirmer

Why the eye confuses infimes with infirmer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: infimes is \ɛ̃.fim\ while infirmer is \ɛ̃.fiʁ.me\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infimes is recorded at frequency rank #37,870, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.fim\. infirmer is at rank #30,217, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.fiʁ.me\.

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 68087, this pair ranks #60,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of infimes vs infirmer

Shared letters: efimn. Private to "infimes": s. Private to "infirmer": r.

"infimes" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "infirmer" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • infimesifnimes · inffimes · infiems · infimess · infimmes · infimse · infmies · inifmes
  • infirmerifnirmer · inffirmer · infimrer · infiremr · infirmerr · infirmmer · infirmre · infirrmer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "infimes" and "infirmer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "infimes" is an adjective and "infirmer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "infimes" or "infirmer"?
"infirmer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,217 in our French list, against #37,870 for "infimes". 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 "infimes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "infirmer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infimes" and "infirmer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incités 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 #60,618 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