chinois

\ʃi.nwa\

/\ʃi.nwa\/ adj

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

The verdict

“chinois” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,249. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,249
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
7
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui se rapporte aux Chinois, à la Chine.

Corpus desk

Index FR-chinois · chinois · French

chinois · rank #1,249 · 10 variants · 7 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,249
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH classique

Nearest frequency peer: classique (+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 « chinois »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « chinois » 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).

chinois vs chiots
71% similar
chinois vs Chinon
57% similar
chinois vs chinoise
88% similar

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

Key facts for chinois
PropertyValue
Headwordchinois
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ʃi.nwa\
Letters7
Frequency rank#1,249
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « chinois »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.chinoisse 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 « classique » (#1,250), « beaux » (#1,247), « comptes » (#1,251). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « chinois » est au #1,249. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around chinois (IPA \ʃi.nwa\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,249 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for chinois, with forms such as "cchinois", "chhinois", and "chinios". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "chiots", "Chinon", "chinoise", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is chinois, spelled C-H-I-N-O-I-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui se rapporte aux Chinois, à la Chine.
  2. 2
    Relatif à la langue parlée et écrite par les sinophones.
  3. 3
    Compliqué, très difficile.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. À l’égard de la population des autres parties de l’empire chinois, nous croyons que l’on pourrait la porter tout au plus à 20 millions.
  2. La forme de l’esclavage était celle de l’esclavage domestique et le sort des esclaves était certainement moins dur que celui des nègres qui travaillaient dans les plantations d’Amérique ou même les coolies chinois ou canaques qui les ont remplacés.

This word in other languages

Chinese(English)chino(Español)chinesisch(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • cchinois
  • chhinois
  • chinios
  • chinnois
  • chinoiss
  • chinosi
  • chionis
  • chniois
  • cihnois
  • hcinois

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of chinois - 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.

cchinois1chhinois1chinios2chinnois1chinoiss1chinosi2chionis2chniois2
Edit distance from "chinois"

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 "chinois"?
"chinois" is spelled C-H-I-N-O-I-S. The IPA pronunciation is \ʃi.nwa\.
What does "chinois" mean?
As an adjective, "chinois" means: Qui se rapporte aux Chinois, à la Chine.
What words are commonly confused with "chinois"?
"chinois" is commonly confused with "chiots", "Chinon", "chinoise". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "chinois"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "chinois" is \ʃi.nwa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "chinois" come from?
"chinois" 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 "chinois", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

comptes#1,251contact#1,253royaume#1,235publics#1,234

Similar misspelling depth

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

auraient10 variantsémission10 variantsfrères10 variantsjacques10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list