Which to use
“infirme” is an adjective and “infirmité” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,053
- “infirme” frequency rank
- #40,321
- “infirmité” frequency rank
- 66374
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | infirme | infirmité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est affecté d’une infirmité ou d’infirmités. | Affection congénitale ou accidentelle qui gêne ou empêche le fonctionnement de telle ou telle partie de l’organisme. |
Where the eye mixes infirme and infirmité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. infirme runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against infirmité's 9 (VCCVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: infirme vs infirmité
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: infirme is \ɛ̃.fiʁm\ while infirmité is \ɛ̃.fiʁ.mi.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
infirme is recorded at frequency rank #26,053, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.fiʁm\. infirmité is at rank #40,321, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.fiʁ.mi.te\.
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 66374, this pair ranks #68,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of infirme vs infirmité
Shared letters: fimnr. Private to "infirme": e. Private to "infirmité": té.
"infirme" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV · "infirmité" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- infirme ← ifnirme · inffirme · infimre · infirem · infirmme · infirrme · infrime · inifrme
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "infirme" for "infirmité" ever safe?
Frequency check: "infirme" vs "infirmité" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "infirme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "infirmité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #68,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "infirme" and "infirmité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infinite vs infirmité". 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 #68,103 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.