chenille

/\ʃə.nij\/ noun

Letters

8 characters

Frequency Rank

#20,666

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

5

similar word pairs

chenille is aFrenchnoun. It means: Stade larvaire de certains insectes. Pronounced \ʃə.nij\. Often confused with cueille and cheville.

Key facts for chenille
PropertyValue
Headwordchenille
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʃə.nij\
Letters8
Frequency rank#20,666
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for chenille is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʃə.nij\. Corpus data places it at rank #20,666 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 17 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 chenille, with forms such as "cchenille", "cehnille", and "cheinlle". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "cueille", "cheville", "chevilles", 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 chenille, spelled C-H-E-N-I-L-L-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Stade larvaire de certains insectes.
  2. 2
    Larve dont le corps cylindrique est formé de douze anneaux, doté de six pattes à l’avant et de pseudopodes à l’arrière. → voir chenille processionnaire
  3. 3
    Ver à soie.
  4. 4
    Dispositif d’avancement continu.
  5. 5
    Équipement moteur d’un véhicule. → voir chenillard
  6. 6
    Entrainement sans fin utilisé en extrusion de profilés. → voir chenille de tirage
  7. 7
    Groupe de danseurs à la queue leu-leu.
  8. 8
    Manège tournant à haute vitesse.
  9. 9
    Plante légumineuse ou scorpioïde.
  10. 10
    Autre nom de la queue-de-scorpion, genre Scorpiurus L. → voir chenillette
  11. 11
    Passementerie veloutée dont on se sert dans les broderies et dans d’autres ornements.
  12. 12
    Attribut vestimentaire pour élégante.
  13. 13
    Tissu fabriqué par assemblage de telles passementeries.
  14. 14
    Figure collective consistant à échanger en cadence un ballon ou des quilles entre les participants.
  15. 15
    Outil pour récurer les pipes
  16. 16
    Cordon de métal remplissant un chanfrein.
  17. 17
    Mauvaise femme.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: cchenille,cehnille,cheinlle,chenile,chenilel,chenlile,chennille,chhenille,chneille,hcenille

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for chenille

Misspelling Variants of "chenille"

cchenille9cehnille8cheinlle8chenile7chenilel8chenlile8chennille9chhenille9
Misspelling Variants of "chenille"

Frequency rank: #20,666 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "chenille"?
"chenille" is spelled C-H-E-N-I-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʃə.nij\.
What does "chenille" mean?
As a noun, "chenille" means: Stade larvaire de certains insectes.
What words are commonly confused with "chenille"?
"chenille" is commonly confused with "cueille", "cheville", "chevilles". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "chenille"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "chenille" is \ʃə.nij\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "chenille" come from?
"chenille" 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.