chef d'œuvre
/ˌʃeɪˈdɜː.v(ɹə)/
"chef-d-uvre" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chef d'œuvre” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A piece of work that has been given much critical praise, especially one considered the greatest work of a person's career.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chef d'œuvre |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌʃeɪˈdɜː.v(ɹə)/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chef d'œuvre” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for chef d'œuvre is 12 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌʃeɪˈdɜː.v(ɹə)/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for chef d'œuvre in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Unadapted borrowing from French chef-d'œuvre. The correct English form is chef d'œuvre, spelled C-H-E-F- -D-'-Œ-U-V-R-E.
Definition
- 1A piece of work that has been given much critical praise, especially one considered the greatest work of a person's career.
- 2A work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship.
- 3A work created in order to qualify as a master craftsman and member of a guild.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French chef-d'œuvre.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “chef d'œuvre”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-E-F- -D-'-Œ-U-V-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌʃeɪˈdɜː.v(ɹə)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.