Which to use
“chefs” and “clefs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,855
- “chefs” frequency rank
- #8,516
- “clefs” frequency rank
- 10371
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chefs | clefs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de chef. | Pluriel de clef. |
Where the eye mixes chefs and clefs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: chefs vs clefs
A purely visual mix-up. chefs (\ʃɛf\) and clefs (\kle\) 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 a single letter - h in “chefs” becomes l in “clefs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chefs is recorded at frequency rank #1,855, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛf\. clefs is at rank #8,516, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kle\.
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 10371, this pair ranks #413,233 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chefs vs clefs
Shared letters: cefs. Private to "chefs": h. Private to "clefs": l.
"chefs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "clefs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chefs" and "clefs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "chefs" or "clefs"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "chefs" and "clefs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chefs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clefs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #413,233 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chefs" and "clefs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chefs 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 #413,233 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.