Which to use
“infirmier” and “infirmité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,406
- “infirmier” frequency rank
- #40,321
- “infirmité” frequency rank
- 53727
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | infirmier | infirmité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Celui qui soigne et sert les malades dans une infirmerie, dans un hôpital, dans une ambulance. | Affection congénitale ou accidentelle qui gêne ou empêche le fonctionnement de telle ou telle partie de l’organisme. |
Where the eye mixes infirmier and infirmité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. infirmier (VCCVCCVVC) and infirmité (VCCVCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between infirmier and infirmité
A purely visual mix-up. infirmier (\ɛ̃.fiʁ.mje\) and infirmité (\ɛ̃.fiʁ.mi.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
infirmier is recorded at frequency rank #13,406, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.fiʁ.mje\. 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 53727, this pair ranks #138,785 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of infirmier vs infirmité
Shared letters: fimnr. Private to "infirmier": e. Private to "infirmité": té.
"infirmier" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC · "infirmité" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- infirmier ← ifnirmier · inffirmier · infimrier · infirimer · infirmeir · infirmierr · infirmire · infirmmier
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "infirmier" for "infirmité" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "infirmier" or "infirmité" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "infirmier" 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 #138,785 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "infirmier" 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 #138,785 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.