Which to use
“check” and “chef” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,188
- “check” frequency rank
- #378
- “chef” frequency rank
- 11566
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | check | chef |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vérification, examen. | ou Tête. |
Where the eye mixes check and chef
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between check and chef
A purely visual mix-up. check (\tʃɛk\) and chef (\ʃɛf\) 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 11566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
check is recorded at frequency rank #11,188, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʃɛk\. chef is at rank #378, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛf\.
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 11566, this pair ranks #408,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of check vs chef
Shared letters: ceh. Private to "check": k. Private to "chef": f.
"check" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "chef" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "check" and "chef" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "check" vs "chef" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "check" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chef" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #408,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "check" and "chef" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "check vs cheik". 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 #408,689 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.