Which to use
“paume” and “pavée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,964
- “paume” frequency rank
- #36,525
- “pavée” frequency rank
- 53489
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paume | pavée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Face intérieure de la main, entre le poignet et les doigts. | Synonyme de digitale pourpre ou pourprée, Digitalis purpurea, plante de la famille des scrofulariacées. |
Where the eye mixes paume and pavée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between paume and pavée
A purely visual mix-up. paume (\pom\) and pavée (\pa.ve\) 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 53489, 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\. pavée is at rank #36,525, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.ve\.
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 53489, this pair ranks #140,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of paume vs pavée
Shared letters: aep. Private to "paume": mu. Private to "pavée": vé.
"paume" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "pavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- paume ← apume · pamue · pauem · paumme · ppaume · puame
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "paume" and "pavée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "paume" vs "pavée" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "paume" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pavée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #140,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paume" and "pavée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pavée vs priée". 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 #140,375 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.