chargevscharterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#786
“charge” frequency rank
#36,757
“charter” frequency rank
37543
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature charge charter
Definition Ce qui pèse. Avion affrété pour transporter un groupe de personnes à un tarif moindre que celui des lignes ordinaires.

Where the eye mixes charge and charter

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

6 ch
charge
7 ch
charter

Look-alike desk: charge vs charter

A purely visual mix-up. charge (\ʃaʁʒ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

charge is recorded at frequency rank #786, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁʒ\. 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 37543, this pair ranks #261,750 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of charge vs charter

Shared letters: acehr. Private to "charge": g. Private to "charter": t.

"charge" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "charter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chargecahrge · ccharge · chagre · chareg · chargge · charrge · chharge · chrage
  • chartercahrter · ccharter · charetr · charrter · charterr · chartre · chartter · chatrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "charge" and "charter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʃaʁʒ\ versus \ʃaʁ.tɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "charge" vs "charter" - which ranks higher?
"charge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #786 in our French list, against #36,757 for "charter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "charge" 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 #261,750 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "charge" 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 #261,750 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