Which to use
“chaume” and “clame” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,424
- “chaume” frequency rank
- #30,947
- “clame” frequency rank
- 66371
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chaume | clame |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tige herbacée, creuse, simple, garnie de nœuds, qui est propre aux graminées, telles que le blé, l’avoine, etc. | Outillage de maintien d’une pièce mécanique pendant son usinage ou sa modification. |
Where the eye mixes chaume and clame
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. chaume runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against clame's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: chaume vs clame
A purely visual mix-up. chaume (\ʃom\) and clame (\klam\) 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 66371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chaume is recorded at frequency rank #35,424, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃom\. clame is at rank #30,947, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klam\.
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 66371, this pair ranks #68,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of chaume vs clame
Shared letters: acem. Private to "chaume": hu. Private to "clame": l.
"chaume" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "clame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chaume" for "clame" ever safe?
Which is more common, "chaume" or "clame"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "chaume" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clame" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #68,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chaume" and "clame" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "charmée vs chaume". 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 #68,120 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.