chaptervschartesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,056
“chapter” frequency rank
#17,369
“chartes” frequency rank
63425
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chapter chartes
Definition Chapitre d'un livre. Pluriel de charte.

Where the eye mixes chapter and chartes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
chapter
7 ch
chartes

Why the eye confuses chapter with chartes

A purely visual mix-up. chapter ([ˈtʃæp.tə(ɹ)]) and chartes (\ʃaʁt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chapter is recorded at frequency rank #46,056, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtʃæp.tə(ɹ)]. chartes is at rank #17,369, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁt\.

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 63425, this pair ranks #82,033 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chapter vs chartes

Shared letters: acehrt. Private to "chapter": p. Private to "chartes": s.

"chapter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "chartes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaptercahpter · cchapter · chapetr · chappter · chapterr · chaptre · chaptter · chatper
  • chartescahrtes · cchartes · chartess · chartse · charttes · chatres · chhartes · chrates

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chapter" for "chartes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈtʃæp.tə(ɹ)] versus \ʃaʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chapter" vs "chartes" - which ranks higher?
"chartes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,369 in our French list, against #46,056 for "chapter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chapter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chartes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #82,033 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chapter" and "chartes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chapel vs chapter". 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 #82,033 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