chenille

\ʃə.nij\

/\ʃə.nij\/ noun

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

The verdict

“chenille” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #20,666. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#20,666
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Stade larvaire de certains insectes.

Corpus desk

Index FR-chenille · chenille · French

chenille · rank #20,666 · 10 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #20,666
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH cerfs

Nearest frequency peer: cerfs (-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 « chenille »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « chenille » 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).

chenille vs cueille
75% similar
chenille vs cheville
88% similar
chenille vs chevilles
78% similar

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

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)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « chenille »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).chenillese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « cerfs » (#20,665), « Claudine » (#20,667), « CDC » (#20,664). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « chenille » est au #20,666. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around chenille (IPA \ʃə.nij\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #20,666 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 17 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for chenille, with forms such as "cchenille", "cehnille", and "cheinlle". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "cueille", "cheville", "chevilles", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is chenille, spelled C-H-E-N-I-L-L-E.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. L’on sait que l’insecte se dépouille de la peau de chenille ou de ver, lorsqu’il revêt la forme de chrysalide […]
  2. Auparavant, j’avais connu un état particulier, celui de ce qui n’est pas encore épanoui, j’avais longtemps vécu dans la phase immobile du développement de la chenille qui espère un jour devenir papillon.

Synonyms

farandolechenille muriquéechenille rayéechenillettechenillonherbe aux chenillespetite chenillettequeue-de-scorpionscorpionnescorpiurevermiculairecure-pipesbourre pipetasse-braise

This word in other languages

caterpillar(English)oruga(Español)Raupe(Deutsch)lagarta(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • cchenille
  • cehnille
  • cheinlle
  • chenile
  • chenilel
  • chenlile
  • chennille
  • chhenille
  • chneille
  • hcenille

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of chenille - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

cchenille1cehnille2cheinlle2chenile1chenilel2chenlile2chennille1chhenille1
Edit distance from "chenille"

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 "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. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "chenille", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Claudine#20,667collants#20,670carcasse#20,661Cadillac#20,659

Similar misspelling depth

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

coulent10 variantscreuses10 variantsdoutent10 variantsacceptes10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list