chasséevschasteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,929
“chassée” frequency rank
#42,791
“chaste” frequency rank
77720
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chassée chaste
Definition Féminin singulier de chassé. Qui s'abstient des plaisirs de la chair.

Where the eye mixes chassée and chaste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chassée runs 7 letters (CCVCCVV) against chaste's 6 (CCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
chassée
6 ch
chaste

Why the eye confuses chassée with chaste

A purely visual mix-up. chassée (\ʃa.se\) and chaste (\ʃast\) 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 77720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chassée is recorded at frequency rank #34,929, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʃa.se\. chaste is at rank #42,791, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃast\.

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 77720, this pair ranks #27,620 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chassée vs chaste

Shared letters: acehs. Private to "chassée": é. Private to "chaste": t.

"chassée" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV  ·  "chaste" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaste ← cahste · cchaste · chaset · chasste · chastte · chatse · chhaste · chsate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chassée" for "chaste" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃa.se\ versus \ʃast\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chassée" or "chaste"?
"chassée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,929 in our French list, against #42,791 for "chaste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chassée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chaste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,620 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chassée" and "chaste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chapter vs chaste". 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 #27,620 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