Which to use
“paume” and “paumée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,964
- “paume” frequency rank
- #37,471
- “paumée” frequency rank
- 54435
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paume | paumée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Face intérieure de la main, entre le poignet et les doigts. | Engagement conclu par des contractants qui se frappent la paume de la main. |
Where the eye mixes paume and paumée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. paume runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against paumée's 6 (CVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between paume and paumée
A purely visual mix-up. paume (\pom\) and paumée (\po.me\) 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 54435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paume is recorded at frequency rank #16,964, classified as anoun, pronounced \pom\. 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 54435, this pair ranks #134,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of paume vs paumée
Shared letters: aempu. Private to "paume": -. Private to "paumée": é.
"paume" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "paumée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- paume ← apume · pamue · pauem · paumme · ppaume · puame
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "paume" and "paumée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "paume" or "paumée" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "paume" 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 #134,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paume" and "paumée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paumée vs primée". 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 #134,090 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.