Which to use
“chicken” and “chien” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,666
- “chicken” frequency rank
- #1,158
- “chien” frequency rank
- 27824
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chicken | chien |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Poule. | Mammifère carnivore de la famille des Canidés, apparenté au loup (dont il est considéré comme une sous-espèce) et domestiqué par l’être humain, existant sous de nombreuses races aux morphologies variables, de nom scientifique : Canis lupus familiaris. |
Where the eye mixes chicken and chien
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chicken runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against chien's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: chicken vs chien
A purely visual mix-up. chicken (\ˈtʃɪk.ɪn\) and chien (\ʃjɛ̃\) 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 27824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chicken is recorded at frequency rank #26,666, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈtʃɪk.ɪn\. chien is at rank #1,158, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃjɛ̃\.
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 27824, this pair ranks #326,552 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of chicken vs chien
Shared letters: cehin. Private to "chicken": k. Private to "chien": -.
"chicken" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "chien" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chicken" for "chien" ever safe?
Frequency check: "chicken" vs "chien" - which ranks higher?
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 "chicken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chien" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #326,552 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chicken" and "chien" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chiches vs chicken". 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 #326,552 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.