chamois

\ʃa.mwa\

/\ʃa.mwa\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“chamois” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #31,397. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#31,397
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
9
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - 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.

Corpus desk

Index FR-chamois · chamois · French

chamois · rank #31,397 · 10 variants · 9 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #31,397
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH Charette

Nearest frequency peer: Charette (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « chamois »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « chamois » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

chamois vs Chaos
57% similar
chamois vs champs
71% similar
chamois vs chinois
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

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)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « chamois »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.chamoisse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Charette » (#31,398), « chilienne » (#31,399), « castes » (#31,394). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « chamois » est au #31,397. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around chamois (IPA \ʃa.mwa\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #31,397 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for chamois, with forms such as "cahmois", "cchamois", and "chamios". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, 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, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented 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 chamois, spelled C-H-A-M-O-I-S.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how chamois appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. La vive et légère indigène, comme un chamois dans les roches alpestres, marchait d’un pied sûr au milieu des glaçons.
  2. Voyez-vous, il y a d’autres voyageurs qui aiment le chamois, et ils disent quelquefois : - Demain soir, en revenant des salines, nous voudrions bien manger du chamois. - Du chamois ! une mauvaise chair noire, autant vaudrait manger du bouc.

Synonyms

isard

This word in other languages

chamois(English)gamuza(Español)Gämse(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • cahmois
  • cchamois
  • chamios
  • chammois
  • chamoiss
  • chamosi
  • chaomis
  • chhamois
  • chmaois
  • hcamois

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of chamois - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

cahmois2cchamois1chamios2chammois1chamoiss1chamosi2chaomis2chhamois1
Edit distance from "chamois"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

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's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "chamois", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ciblage#31,400civière#31,403carbure#31,390clasico#31,405

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

bretelle10 variantscormier10 variantsboréale10 variantsbercail10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list