Which to use
“cédille” and “cheville” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,589
- “cédille” frequency rank
- #8,213
- “cheville” frequency rank
- 57802
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cédille | cheville |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Signe diacritique de l’alphabet latin en forme de crochet vers la gauche (‹ ◌̧ ›) comme la moitié inférieure de z wisigothique (duquel elle provient), de petit c culbuté ou parfois de petite virgule souscrite. | Morceau de bois ou de métal qu’on fait entrer dans un trou pour le boucher, pour faire des assemblages ou pour d’autres usages. |
Where the eye mixes cédille and cheville
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cédille runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against cheville's 8 (CCVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cédille vs cheville
A purely visual mix-up. cédille (\se.dij\) and cheville (\ʃə.vij\) 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 57802, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cédille is recorded at frequency rank #49,589, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.dij\. cheville is at rank #8,213, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃə.vij\.
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 57802, this pair ranks #112,876 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cédille vs cheville
Shared letters: ceil. Private to "cédille": dé. Private to "cheville": hv.
"cédille" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "cheville" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cheville ← ccheville · cehville · cheivlle · chevile · chevilel · chevlile · chevville · chheville
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cédille" and "cheville" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cédille" or "cheville"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cédille" and "cheville" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cédille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cheville" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #112,876 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cédille" and "cheville" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cédille vs cueille". 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 #112,876 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.