chevillevscueilleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,213
“cheville” frequency rank
#42,265
“cueille” frequency rank
50478
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cheville cueille
Definition Morceau de bois ou de métal qu’on fait entrer dans un trou pour le boucher, pour faire des assemblages ou pour d’autres usages. Action de cueillir.

Where the eye mixes cheville and cueille

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cheville runs 8 letters (CCVCVCCV) against cueille's 7 (CVVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
cheville
7 ch
cueille

Look-alike desk: cheville vs cueille

A purely visual mix-up. cheville (\ʃə.vij\) and cueille (\kœj\) 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 50478, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cheville is recorded at frequency rank #8,213, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃə.vij\. cueille is at rank #42,265, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kœj\.

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 50478, this pair ranks #162,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cheville vs cueille

Shared letters: ceil. Private to "cheville": hv. Private to "cueille": u.

"cheville" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "cueille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chevilleccheville · cehville · cheivlle · chevile · chevilel · chevlile · chevville · chheville
  • cueilleccueille · ceuille · cueile · cueilel · cuelile · cuielle · uceille

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cheville" and "cueille" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʃə.vij\ versus \kœj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cheville" or "cueille"?
"cheville" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,213 in our French list, against #42,265 for "cueille". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cheville" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cueille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cheville" and "cueille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cédille vs cueille". 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 #162,309 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