charactervscharterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,223
“character” frequency rank
#36,757
“charter” frequency rank
73980
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature character charter
Definition Nature. Avion affrété pour transporter un groupe de personnes à un tarif moindre que celui des lignes ordinaires.

Where the eye mixes character and charter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. character runs 9 letters (CCVCVCCVC) against charter's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
character
7 ch
charter

Why the eye confuses character with charter

A purely visual mix-up. character (\ˈkɛɹ.ək.tɚ\) and charter (\ʃaʁ.tɛʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73980, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

character is recorded at frequency rank #37,223, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɛɹ.ək.tɚ\. charter is at rank #36,757, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁ.tɛʁ\.

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 73980, this pair ranks #38,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of character vs charter

Shared letters: acehrt. Private to "character": -. Private to "charter": -.

"character" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC  ·  "charter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • character ← cahracter · ccharacter · chaarcter · characcter · characetr · characterr · charactre · charactter
  • charter ← cahrter · ccharter · charetr · charrter · charterr · chartre · chartter · chatrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "character" and "charter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈkɛɹ.ək.tɚ\ versus \ʃaʁ.tɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "character" vs "charter" - which ranks higher?
"charter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,757 in our French list, against #37,223 for "character". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "character" and "charter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "character" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "charter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "character" and "charter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "charmée vs charter". 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 #38,676 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