Which to use
“caire” and “chaine” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,938
- “caire” frequency rank
- #6,060
- “chaine” frequency rank
- 13998
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caire | chaine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étoupe de fibres de coco. | Variante orthographique de chaîne. |
Where the eye mixes caire and chaine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. caire runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against chaine's 6 (CCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between caire and chaine
A purely visual mix-up. caire (\kɛʁ\) and chaine (\ʃɛn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13998, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caire is recorded at frequency rank #7,938, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɛʁ\. chaine is at rank #6,060, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛn\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 13998, this pair ranks #398,649 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of caire vs chaine
Shared letters: acei. Private to "caire": r. Private to "chaine": hn.
"caire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "chaine" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "caire" for "chaine" ever safe?
Frequency check: "caire" vs "chaine" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "caire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chaine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #398,649 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caire" and "chaine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caire vs ciro". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #398,649 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.