cheminéevscheminerConfusable pair

Quick tell: cheminée is a noun, cheminer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cheminée” is a noun and “cheminer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,671
“cheminée” frequency rank
#44,366
“cheminer” frequency rank
53037
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cheminée cheminer
Definition Construction abritant un âtre, où l’on fait du feu, et comportant un conduit pour donner issue à la fumée. Marcher, aller, faire du chemin pour arriver quelque part.

Same sound, different letters: cheminée vs cheminer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. cheminée (CCVCVCVV) and cheminer (CCVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
cheminée
8 ch
cheminer

Ear matches; page differs - cheminée and cheminer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: cheminée and cheminer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʃə.mi.ne\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53037, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cheminée is recorded at frequency rank #8,671, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃə.mi.ne\. cheminer is at rank #44,366, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʃə.mi.ne\.

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 53037, this pair ranks #143,519 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cheminée vs cheminer

Shared letters: cehimn. Private to "cheminée": é. Private to "cheminer": r.

"cheminée" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "cheminer" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cheminerccheminer · cehminer · cheimner · chemienr · cheminerr · cheminner · cheminre · chemminer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cheminée" and "cheminer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cheminée" is a noun and "cheminer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cheminée" or "cheminer"?
"cheminée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,671 in our French list, against #44,366 for "cheminer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "cheminée" / "cheminer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cheminée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cheminer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,519 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cheminée" and "cheminer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chemine vs cheminer". 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 #143,519 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list