chaff
\ʃaf\
The verdict
“chaff” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Mélange, à parties égales, de paille et de foin coupés.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chaff |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ʃaf\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chaff” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for chaff is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʃaf\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Mélange, à parties égales, de paille et de foin coupés.".
No misspelling variants are generated for chaff in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is chaff, spelled C-H-A-F-F.
Definition
- 1Mélange, à parties égales, de paille et de foin coupés.
This word in other languages
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 “chaff”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-H-A-F-F - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʃaf\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French 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.