chamois

/\ʃa.mwa\/ noun

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#31,397

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

9

similar word pairs

chamois is aFrenchnoun. It means: Mammifère ruminant de la famille des Bovidés et de la sous-famille des Caprinés, de la taille d’une grande chèvre, qui vit dans les hautes montagnes. Pronounced \ʃa.mwa\. Often confused with Chaos and champs.

Key facts for chamois
PropertyValue
Headwordchamois
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʃa.mwa\
Letters7
Frequency rank#31,397
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of chamois in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for chamois is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʃa.mwa\. Corpus data places it at rank #31,397 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for chamois, with forms such as "cahmois", "cchamois", and "chamios". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "Chaos", "champs", "chinois", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is chamois, spelled C-H-A-M-O-I-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mammifère ruminant de la famille des Bovidés et de la sous-famille des Caprinés, de la taille d’une grande chèvre, qui vit dans les hautes montagnes.
  2. 2
    Peau de cet animal rendue souple et moelleuse après toute une série de préparations.
  3. 3
    (Couleur) Nom de couleur en usage dans la mode et la décoration
  4. 4
    Meuble représentant l’animal du même nom dans les armoiries. Il se blasonne comme le bouc dont il se distingue par les cornes. À rapprocher de bouc, bouquetin, chèvre et mouflon.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: cahmois,cchamois,chamios,chammois,chamoiss,chamosi,chaomis,chhamois,chmaois,hcamois

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for chamois

Misspelling Variants of "chamois"

cahmois7cchamois8chamios7chammois8chamoiss8chamosi7chaomis7chhamois8
Misspelling Variants of "chamois"

Frequency rank: #31,397 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "chamois"?
"chamois" is spelled C-H-A-M-O-I-S. The IPA pronunciation is \ʃa.mwa\.
What does "chamois" mean?
As a noun, "chamois" means: Mammifère ruminant de la famille des Bovidés et de la sous-famille des Caprinés, de la taille d’une grande chèvre, qui vit dans les hautes montagnes.
What words are commonly confused with "chamois"?
"chamois" is commonly confused with "Chaos", "champs", "chinois". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "chamois"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "chamois" is \ʃa.mwa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "chamois" come from?
"chamois" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.