parfuméevspauméeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: parfumée is a adjective, paumée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“parfumée” is an adjective and “paumée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,946
“parfumée” frequency rank
#37,471
“paumée” frequency rank
70417
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parfumée paumée
Definition Féminin singulier de parfumé. Engagement conclu par des contractants qui se frappent la paume de la main.

Where the eye mixes parfumée and paumée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. parfumée runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVV) against paumée's 6 (CVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
parfumée
6 ch
paumée

Visual trap between parfumée and paumée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parfumée is \paʁ.fy.me\ while paumée is \po.me\. 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 70417, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parfumée is recorded at frequency rank #32,946, classified as anadj, pronounced \paʁ.fy.me\. paumée is at rank #37,471, tagged as anoun, pronounced \po.me\.

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 70417, this pair ranks #51,389 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of parfumée vs paumée

Shared letters: aempué. Private to "parfumée": fr. Private to "paumée": -.

"parfumée" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "paumée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "parfumée" for "paumée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "parfumée" is an adjective and "paumée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "parfumée" vs "paumée" - which ranks higher?
"parfumée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,946 in our French list, against #37,471 for "paumée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "parfumée" and "paumée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parfumée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "paumée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,389 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parfumée" and "paumée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paumée vs primée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #51,389 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