Which to use
“check” and “chefs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,188
- “check” frequency rank
- #1,855
- “chefs” frequency rank
- 13043
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | check | chefs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vérification, examen. | Pluriel de chef. |
Where the eye mixes check and chefs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses check with chefs
A purely visual mix-up. check (\tʃɛk\) and chefs (\ʃɛf\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13043, 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\. chefs is at rank #1,855, 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 13043, this pair ranks #402,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of check vs chefs
Shared letters: ceh. Private to "check": k. Private to "chefs": fs.
"check" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "chefs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "check" for "chefs" ever safe?
Frequency check: "check" vs "chefs" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "check" and "chefs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "check" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chefs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "check" and "chefs" 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 #402,679 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.