Which to use
“carrière” and “charnière” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,020
- “carrière” frequency rank
- #17,368
- “charnière” frequency rank
- 18388
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carrière | charnière |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Champ de courses : espace fermé de barrières et disposé pour toute sorte de courses, principalement pour les courses à cheval ou en char. | Assemblage mobile de deux pièces de métal, de bois ou d’autre matière, enclavées l’une dans l’autre et jointes par une broche, par un clou qui les traverse. |
Where the eye mixes carrière and charnière
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. carrière runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCV) against charnière's 9 (CCVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between carrière and charnière
A purely visual mix-up. carrière (\ka.ʁjɛʁ\) and charnière (\ʃaʁ.njɛʁ\) 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 18388, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carrière is recorded at frequency rank #1,020, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁjɛʁ\. charnière is at rank #17,368, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁ.njɛʁ\.
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 18388, this pair ranks #378,581 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of carrière vs charnière
Shared letters: aceirè. Private to "carrière": -. Private to "charnière": hn.
"carrière" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV · "charnière" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "carrière" for "charnière" ever safe?
Which is more common, "carrière" or "charnière"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "carrière" and "charnière" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "carrière" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "charnière" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #378,581 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carrière" and "charnière" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "charnière vs charnières". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #378,581 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.