chastevschastelWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: chaste is a adjective, chastel is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chaste” is an adjective and “chastel” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,791
“chaste” frequency rank
#32,736
“chastel” frequency rank
75527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chaste chastel
Definition Qui s'abstient des plaisirs de la chair. Petit château.

Letter map: chaste vs chastel

Shared letters muted; letters that set chaste and chastel apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. chaste runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against chastel's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
chaste
7 ch
chastel

Grammar separator: chaste vs chastel

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: chaste is anadjective and chastelanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “chaste” sits inside “chastel”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chaste is recorded at frequency rank #42,791, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʃast\. chastel is at rank #32,736, tagged as anoun.

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 75527, this pair ranks #33,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chaste vs chastel

Shared letters: acehst. Private to "chaste": -. Private to "chastel": l.

"chaste" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "chastel" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaste ← cahste · cchaste · chaset · chasste · chastte · chatse · chhaste · chsate
  • chastel ← cahstel · cchastel · chasetl · chasstel · chastell · chastle · chasttel · chatsel

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chaste" and "chastel" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chaste" is an adjective and "chastel" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "chaste" vs "chastel" - which ranks higher?
"chastel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,736 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.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "chaste" and "chastel".

  • Full dictionary entry for "chaste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chastel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chaste" and "chastel" 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 #33,802 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