Which to use
“chief” and “child” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,667
- “chief” frequency rank
- #23,798
- “child” frequency rank
- 50465
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chief | child |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tête. | Enfant (fils ou fille). Note d’usage : Utilisé généralement dans une construction possessive. |
Where the eye mixes chief and child
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses chief with child
A purely visual mix-up. chief (\tʃjef\) and child (\ˈtʃaɪld\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chief is recorded at frequency rank #26,667, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʃjef\. child is at rank #23,798, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈtʃaɪld\.
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 50465, this pair ranks #162,398 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of chief vs child
Shared letters: chi. Private to "chief": ef. Private to "child": dl.
"chief" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "child" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chief" and "child" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "chief" or "child" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "chief" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "child" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #162,398 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chief" and "child" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chief vs chient". 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 #162,398 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.