Which to use
“infirme” and “informe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,053
- “infirme” frequency rank
- #8,564
- “informe” frequency rank
- 34617
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | infirme | informe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est affecté d’une infirmité ou d’infirmités. | Dont la forme est indécise. |
Where the eye mixes infirme and informe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. infirme and informe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses infirme with informe
A purely visual mix-up. infirme (\ɛ̃.fiʁm\) and informe (\ɛ̃.fɔʁm\) 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 - i in “infirme” becomes o in “informe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34617, 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\. informe is at rank #8,564, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.fɔʁm\.
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 34617, this pair ranks #282,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of infirme vs informe
Shared letters: efimnr. Private to "infirme": -. Private to "informe": o.
"infirme" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV · "informe" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "infirme" for "informe" ever safe?
Which is more common, "infirme" or "informe"?
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 "informe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #282,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "infirme" and "informe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infirme 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 #282,563 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.