tamisvstempsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,577
“tamis” frequency rank
#89
“temps” frequency rank
37666
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tamis temps
Definition Sorte de crible, de sas qui sert à passer des matières pulvérulentes, les liquides troubles, etc. Durée des choses, marquée par certaines périodes, et principalement par la révolution apparente du soleil ; écart entre le déroulement de deux événements.

Where the eye mixes tamis and temps

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tamis
5 ch
temps

Visual trap between tamis and temps

A purely visual mix-up. tamis (\ta.mi\) and temps (\tɑ̃\) 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 37666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tamis is recorded at frequency rank #37,577, classified as anoun, pronounced \ta.mi\. temps is at rank #89, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃\.

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 37666, this pair ranks #260,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tamis vs temps

Shared letters: mst. Private to "tamis": ai. Private to "temps": ep.

"tamis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "temps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tamisatmis · taims · tamiss · tammis · tamsi · tmais · ttamis
  • tempsetmps · temmps · tempps · tempss · temsp · tepms · tmeps · ttemps

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tamis" for "temps" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ta.mi\ versus \tɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tamis" or "temps"?
"temps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #89 in our French list, against #37,577 for "tamis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tamis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "temps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #260,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tamis" and "temps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tamis vs tari". 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 #260,838 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