chèrevscheveuTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,764
“chère” frequency rank
#15,833
“cheveu” frequency rank
18597
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chère cheveu
Definition Personne considérée comme chère, qui est tenu avec une affectueuse haute estime ou, par ironie, à qui est adressée une forme de dédain. Filament organique synthétisé par l’épiderme du crâne humain.

Where the eye mixes chère and cheveu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chère
6 ch
cheveu

Look-alike desk: chère vs cheveu

A purely visual mix-up. chère (\ʃɛʁ\) and cheveu (\ʃə.vø\) 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 18597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chère is recorded at frequency rank #2,764, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛʁ\. cheveu is at rank #15,833, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃə.vø\.

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 18597, this pair ranks #377,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chère vs cheveu

Shared letters: ceh. Private to "chère": . Private to "cheveu": uv.

"chère" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "cheveu" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cheveuccheveu · cehveu · cheevu · chevue · chevveu · chheveu · chveeu · hceveu

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chère" for "cheveu" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɛʁ\ versus \ʃə.vø\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chère" or "cheveu"?
"chère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,764 in our French list, against #15,833 for "cheveu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cheveu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #377,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chère" and "cheveu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cheveu vs chevreau". 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 #377,495 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