Which to use
“infirmer” is a verb and “infirmière” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,217
- “infirmer” frequency rank
- #6,307
- “infirmière” frequency rank
- 36524
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | infirmer | infirmière |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Affaiblir, diminuer, ôter la force, la valeur d’une chose. | Celle qui soigne et sert les malades dans une infirmerie, dans un hôpital, dans une ambulance. |
Where the eye mixes infirmer and infirmière
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. infirmer runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVC) against infirmière's 10 (VCCVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between infirmer and infirmière
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: infirmer is \ɛ̃.fiʁ.me\ while infirmière is \ɛ̃.fiʁ.mjɛʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36524, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
infirmer is recorded at frequency rank #30,217, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.fiʁ.me\. infirmière is at rank #6,307, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.fiʁ.mjɛʁ\.
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 36524, this pair ranks #269,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of infirmer vs infirmière
Shared letters: efimnr. Private to "infirmer": -. Private to "infirmière": è.
"infirmer" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC · "infirmière" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- infirmer ← ifnirmer · inffirmer · infimrer · infiremr · infirmerr · infirmmer · infirmre · infirrmer
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "infirmer" and "infirmière" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "infirmer" or "infirmière"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "infirmer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "infirmière" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #269,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "infirmer" and "infirmière" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infimes vs infirmer". 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 #269,000 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.