chefvscrewWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“chef” and “crew” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,029
“chef” frequency rank
#6,171
“crew” frequency rank
7200
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chef crew
Definition gewerblich und versiert kochende Person Belegschaft

Letter map: chef vs crew

Shared letters muted; letters that set chef and crew apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
chef
4 ch
crew

Pair insight - chef / crew

chef and crew are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chef is recorded at frequency rank #1,029, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʃɛf]. crew is at rank #6,171, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 7200, this pair ranks #1,989,042 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chef vs crew

Shared letters: ce. Private to "chef": fh. Private to "crew": rw.

"chef" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "crew" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chefcchef · cehf · cheff · chfe · chhef · hcef
  • crewccrew · cerw · creww · crrew · crwe · rcew

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chef" and "crew" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "chef" or "crew" show up more?
"chef" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,029 in our German list, against #6,171 for "crew". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "chef" vs "crew" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chef" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crew" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,989,042 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chef" and "crew" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crew vs puzzles". 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 #1,989,042 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list