Which to use
“chairs” is a noun and “clairs” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,754
- “chairs” frequency rank
- #8,820
- “clairs” frequency rank
- 45574
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chairs | clairs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de chair. | Masculin pluriel de clair. |
Where the eye mixes chairs and clairs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chairs and clairs follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between chairs and clairs
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chairs is \ʃɛʁ\ while clairs is \klɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - h in “chairs” becomes l in “clairs”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chairs is recorded at frequency rank #36,754, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛʁ\. clairs is at rank #8,820, tagged as anadj, pronounced \klɛʁ\.
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 45574, this pair ranks #201,686 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of chairs vs clairs
Shared letters: acirs. Private to "chairs": h. Private to "clairs": l.
"chairs" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "clairs" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chairs" and "clairs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "chairs" or "clairs"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "chairs" and "clairs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chairs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clairs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,686 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chairs" and "clairs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caïds vs chairs". 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 #201,686 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.