Which to use
“cheminée” and “chemins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,671
- “cheminée” frequency rank
- #3,240
- “chemins” frequency rank
- 11911
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cheminée | chemins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Construction abritant un âtre, où l’on fait du feu, et comportant un conduit pour donner issue à la fumée. | Pluriel de chemin. |
Where the eye mixes cheminée and chemins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cheminée runs 8 letters (CCVCVCVV) against chemins's 7 (CCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses cheminée with chemins
A purely visual mix-up. cheminée (\ʃə.mi.ne\) and chemins (\ʃə.mɛ̃\) 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 11911, 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\. chemins is at rank #3,240, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃə.mɛ̃\.
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 11911, this pair ranks #407,299 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cheminée vs chemins
Shared letters: cehimn. Private to "cheminée": é. Private to "chemins": s.
"cheminée" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV · "chemins" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- chemins ← cchemins · cehmins · cheimns · cheminns · cheminss · chemisn · chemmins · chemnis
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cheminée" and "chemins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cheminée" or "chemins" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cheminée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chemins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #407,299 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cheminée" and "chemins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chemine vs cheminée". 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 #407,299 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.