chairevschèreTell them apart

Which to use

“chaire” and “chère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,287
“chaire” frequency rank
#2,764
“chère” frequency rank
12051
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chaire chère
Definition Sorte de tribune élevée et ordinairement surmontée d’un dais ou baldaquin dans laquelle se place le prêtre ou le pasteur pour prêcher, pour faire quelque lecture aux assistants, etc. Personne considérée comme chère, qui est tenu avec une affectueuse haute estime ou, par ironie, à qui est adressée une forme de dédain.

Same sound, different letters: chaire vs chère

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

6 ch
chaire
5 ch
chère

Homophone desk: chaire vs chère

This is the hard kind. chaire and chère are pronounced identically (\ʃɛʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12051, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chaire is recorded at frequency rank #9,287, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛʁ\. chère is at rank #2,764, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛʁ\.

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 12051, this pair ranks #406,777 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chaire vs chère

Shared letters: cehr. Private to "chaire": ai. Private to "chère": è.

"chaire" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "chère" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chairecchaire · chairre · charie · chhaire · chiare · hcaire

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chaire" and "chère" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʃɛʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "chaire" or "chère" show up more?
"chère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,764 in our French list, against #9,287 for "chaire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,777 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chaire" and "chère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaire vs charrie". 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 #406,777 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list