Which to use
“intime” is an adjective and “intimité” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,469
- “intime” frequency rank
- #7,452
- “intimité” frequency rank
- 12921
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | intime | intimité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Profondément intérieur, en parlant surtout de ce qui fait l’essence réelle d’une chose. | Qualité de ce qui est intime, a vocation à rester privé et protégé des atteintes extérieures. |
Where the eye mixes intime and intimité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. intime runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against intimité's 8 (VCCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses intime with intimité
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: intime is \ɛ̃.tim\ while intimité is \ɛ̃.ti.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 12921, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
intime is recorded at frequency rank #5,469, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tim\. 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 12921, this pair ranks #403,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of intime vs intimité
Shared letters: imnt. Private to "intime": e. Private to "intimité": é.
"intime" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "intimité" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- intime ← initme · inntime · intiem · intimme · intmie · inttime · itnime · nitime
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "intime" and "intimité" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "intime" or "intimité" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "intime" and "intimité" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "intime" 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 #403,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "intime" and "intimité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inimitié vs intimité". 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 #403,188 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.