Which to use
“cheese” and “chère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,793
- “cheese” frequency rank
- #2,764
- “chère” frequency rank
- 25557
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cheese | chère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fromage (produit laitier). | Personne considérée comme chère, qui est tenu avec une affectueuse haute estime ou, par ironie, à qui est adressée une forme de dédain. |
Where the eye mixes cheese and chère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cheese with chère
A purely visual mix-up. cheese (\tʃiːz\) and chère (\ʃɛʁ\) 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 25557, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cheese is recorded at frequency rank #22,793, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʃiːz\. chère is at rank #2,764, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛʁ\.
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 25557, this pair ranks #340,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cheese vs chère
Shared letters: ceh. Private to "cheese": s. Private to "chère": rè.
"cheese" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "chère" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cheese ← ccheese · cehese · cheees · cheesse · chese · chesee · chheese · hceese
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cheese" and "chère" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cheese" vs "chère" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cheese" and "chère" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cheese" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #340,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cheese" and "chère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs cheese". 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 #340,189 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.