infirmitévsintimitéWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“infirmité” and “intimité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,321
“infirmité” frequency rank
#7,452
“intimité” frequency rank
47773
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infirmité intimité
Definition Affection congénitale ou accidentelle qui gêne ou empêche le fonctionnement de telle ou telle partie de l’organisme. Qualité de ce qui est intime, a vocation à rester privé et protégé des atteintes extérieures.

Where the eye mixes infirmité and intimité

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. infirmité runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVCV) against intimité's 8 (VCCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
infirmité
8 ch
intimité

Visual trap between infirmité and intimité

A purely visual mix-up. infirmité (\ɛ̃.fiʁ.mi.te\) and intimité (\ɛ̃.ti.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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infirmité is recorded at frequency rank #40,321, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.fiʁ.mi.te\. intimité is at rank #7,452, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.ti.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 47773, this pair ranks #184,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of infirmité vs intimité

Shared letters: imnté. Private to "infirmité": fr. Private to "intimité": -.

"infirmité" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV  ·  "intimité" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "infirmité" and "intimité" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.fiʁ.mi.te\ versus \ɛ̃.ti.mi.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "infirmité" or "intimité"?
"intimité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,452 in our French list, against #40,321 for "infirmité". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "infirmité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intimité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infirmité" and "intimité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infinite vs infirmité". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #184,261 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