chenillevschevillesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“chenille” and “chevilles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#20,666
“chenille” frequency rank
#15,327
“chevilles” frequency rank
35993
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chenille chevilles
Definition Stade larvaire de certains insectes. Pluriel de cheville.

Where the eye mixes chenille and chevilles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
chenille
9 ch
chevilles

Visual trap between chenille and chevilles

A purely visual mix-up. chenille (\ʃə.nij\) and chevilles (\ʃə.vij\) 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 35993, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chenille is recorded at frequency rank #20,666, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃə.nij\. chevilles is at rank #15,327, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃə.vij\.

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 35993, this pair ranks #272,746 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chenille vs chevilles

Shared letters: cehil. Private to "chenille": n. Private to "chevilles": sv.

"chenille" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "chevilles" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chenillecchenille · cehnille · cheinlle · chenile · chenilel · chenlile · chennille · chhenille
  • chevillescchevilles · cehvilles · cheivlles · chevilels · cheviles · chevilless · chevillse · chevliles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chenille" and "chevilles" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʃə.nij\ versus \ʃə.vij\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chenille" or "chevilles"?
"chevilles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,327 in our French list, against #20,666 for "chenille". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "chenille" and "chevilles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chenille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chevilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #272,746 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chenille" and "chevilles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cédille vs chenille". 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 #272,746 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