cheveuvschèvresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,833
“cheveu” frequency rank
#13,540
“chèvres” frequency rank
29373
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cheveu chèvres
Definition Filament organique synthétisé par l’épiderme du crâne humain. Pluriel de chèvre.

Where the eye mixes cheveu and chèvres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cheveu runs 6 letters (CCVCVV) against chèvres's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cheveu
7 ch
chèvres

Visual trap between cheveu and chèvres

A purely visual mix-up. cheveu (\ʃə.vø\) and chèvres (\ʃɛvʁ\) 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 29373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cheveu is recorded at frequency rank #15,833, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃə.vø\. chèvres is at rank #13,540, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛvʁ\.

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 29373, this pair ranks #317,084 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cheveu vs chèvres

Shared letters: cehv. Private to "cheveu": u. Private to "chèvres": rsè.

"cheveu" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "chèvres" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cheveu" and "chèvres" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʃə.vø\ versus \ʃɛvʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cheveu" or "chèvres"?
"chèvres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,540 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.

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 "cheveu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chèvres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #317,084 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cheveu" and "chèvres" 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 #317,084 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