Which to use
“chiffre” and “chimère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,946
- “chiffre” frequency rank
- #25,587
- “chimère” frequency rank
- 27533
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chiffre | chimère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Caractère utilisé pour écrire les nombres. Par analogie avec les mots, on peut dire que les chiffres constituent l’alphabet des nombres. | Figure imaginaire représentant un animal fabuleux à buste de lion à ventre de chèvre et à queue de serpent. |
Where the eye mixes chiffre and chimère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chiffre (CCVCCCV) and chimère (CCVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between chiffre and chimère
A purely visual mix-up. chiffre (\ʃifʁ\) and chimère (\ʃi.mɛʁ\) 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 27533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chiffre is recorded at frequency rank #1,946, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃifʁ\. chimère is at rank #25,587, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃi.mɛʁ\.
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 27533, this pair ranks #328,362 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of chiffre vs chimère
Shared letters: cehir. Private to "chiffre": f. Private to "chimère": mè.
"chiffre" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV · "chimère" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- chiffre ← cchiffre · chfifre · chhiffre · chiffer · chiffrre · chifre · chifrfe · cihffre
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chiffre" and "chimère" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "chiffre" or "chimère" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "chiffre" and "chimère" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chiffre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chimère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #328,362 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chiffre" and "chimère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chimère vs commère". 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 #328,362 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.