Which to use
“cheminées” and “chemins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,957
- “cheminées” frequency rank
- #3,240
- “chemins” frequency rank
- 22197
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cheminées | chemins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de cheminée. | Pluriel de chemin. |
Where the eye mixes cheminées and chemins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. cheminées runs 9 letters (CCVCVCVVC) against chemins's 7 (CCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cheminées vs chemins
A purely visual mix-up. cheminées (\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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cheminées is recorded at frequency rank #18,957, 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 22197, this pair ranks #359,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cheminées vs chemins
Shared letters: cehimns. Private to "cheminées": é. Private to "chemins": -.
"cheminées" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC · "chemins" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- chemins ← cchemins · cehmins · cheimns · cheminns · cheminss · chemisn · chemmins · chemnis
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cheminées" and "chemins" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "cheminées" or "chemins"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cheminées" 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 #359,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cheminées" and "chemins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chemine vs cheminées". 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 #359,335 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.