charniervscharterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,060
“charnier” frequency rank
#36,757
“charter” frequency rank
82817
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature charnier charter
Definition Cimetière, lieu où l’on déposait les ossements des morts, fosse commune, ossuaire. Avion affrété pour transporter un groupe de personnes à un tarif moindre que celui des lignes ordinaires.

Where the eye mixes charnier and charter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. charnier runs 8 letters (CCVCCVVC) against charter's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
charnier
7 ch
charter

Why the eye confuses charnier with charter

A purely visual mix-up. charnier (\ʃaʁ.nje\) 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 82817, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

charnier is recorded at frequency rank #46,060, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁ.nje\. 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 82817, this pair ranks #15,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of charnier vs charter

Shared letters: acehr. Private to "charnier": in. Private to "charter": t.

"charnier" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC  ·  "charter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • charnier ← cahrnier · ccharnier · chanrier · chariner · charneir · charnierr · charnire · charnnier
  • charter ← cahrter · ccharter · charetr · charrter · charterr · chartre · chartter · chatrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "charnier" and "charter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʃaʁ.nje\ versus \ʃaʁ.tɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "charnier" or "charter"?
"charter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,757 in our French list, against #46,060 for "charnier". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "charnier" 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 #15,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "charnier" and "charter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Carlier vs charnier". 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 #15,973 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