Which to use
“chaine” and “cocaine” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,060
- “chaine” frequency rank
- #47,231
- “cocaine” frequency rank
- 53291
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chaine | cocaine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante orthographique de chaîne. | Cocaïne. |
Where the eye mixes chaine and cocaine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chaine runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against cocaine's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between chaine and cocaine
A purely visual mix-up. chaine (\ʃɛn\) and cocaine (\kəʊ.ˈkeɪn\) 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 53291, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chaine is recorded at frequency rank #6,060, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛn\. cocaine is at rank #47,231, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kəʊ.ˈkeɪn\.
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 53291, this pair ranks #141,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of chaine vs cocaine
Shared letters: acein. Private to "chaine": h. Private to "cocaine": o.
"chaine" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "cocaine" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "chaine" and "cocaine" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "chaine" vs "cocaine" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "chaine" and "cocaine" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chaine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cocaine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #141,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chaine" and "cocaine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cocaine vs cocarde". 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 #141,757 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.