chandellevschandellesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,366
“chandelle” frequency rank
#27,000
“chandelles” frequency rank
44366
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chandelle chandelles
Definition ou Cylindre combustible intégrant une mèche entourée de suif ou de cire qui éclaire en brûlant. Pluriel de chandelle.

Same sound, different letters: chandelle vs chandelles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. chandelle runs 9 letters (CCVCCVCCV) against chandelles's 10 (CCVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
chandelle
10 ch
chandelles

Homophone desk: chandelle vs chandelles

This is the hard kind. chandelle and chandelles are pronounced identically (\ʃɑ̃.dɛl\) 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 extra letter(s) - “chandelle” sits inside “chandelles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chandelle is recorded at frequency rank #17,366, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɑ̃.dɛl\. chandelles is at rank #27,000, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɑ̃.dɛl\.

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 44366, this pair ranks #210,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chandelle vs chandelles

Shared letters: acdehln. Private to "chandelle": -. Private to "chandelles": s.

"chandelle" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCCV  ·  "chandelles" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chandelle ← cahndelle · cchandelle · chadnelle · chanddelle · chandele · chandelel · chandlele · chanedlle
  • chandelles ← cahndelles · cchandelles · chadnelles · chanddelles · chandelels · chandeles · chandelless · chandellse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chandelle" and "chandelles" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʃɑ̃.dɛl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "chandelle" or "chandelles"?
"chandelle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,366 in our French list, against #27,000 for "chandelles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chandelle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chandelles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #210,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chandelle" and "chandelles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chandeliers vs chandelles". 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 #210,960 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