ChaevscharWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Chae is a name, char is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Chae” is a name and “char” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,113
“Chae” frequency rank
#15,585
“char” frequency rank
59698
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Chae char
Definition A surname. To burn something to charcoal; to be burnt to charcoal.

Letter map: Chae vs char

Shared letters muted; letters that set Chae and char apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Chae (CCVV) and char (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Chae
4 ch
char

Grammar separator: Chae vs char

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Chae is aname and charaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “Chae” becomes r in “char”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59698, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Chae is recorded at frequency rank #44,113, classified as aname. char is at rank #15,585, tagged as averb, pronounced /t͡ʃɑː/.

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 59698, this pair ranks #104,591 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Chae vs char

Shared letters: ach. Private to "Chae": e. Private to "char": r.

"Chae" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "char" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Chae ← cchae · chea · chhae · hcae
  • char ← cahr · cchar · charr · chhar · chra · hcar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Chae" for "char" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Chae" is a name and "char" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Chae" vs "char" - which ranks higher?
"char" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,585 in our English list, against #44,113 for "Chae". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Chae" and "char". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Chae" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "char" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,591 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Chae" and "char" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caw vs Chae". 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 #104,591 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list