Which to use
“chimère” and “chimères” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,587
- “chimère” frequency rank
- #30,519
- “chimères” frequency rank
- 56106
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chimère | chimères |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Figure imaginaire représentant un animal fabuleux à buste de lion à ventre de chèvre et à queue de serpent. | Pluriel de chimère. |
Same sound, different letters: chimère vs chimères
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. chimère runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against chimères's 8 (CCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - chimère and chimères
This is the hard kind. chimère and chimères are pronounced identically (\ʃi.mɛʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “chimère” sits inside “chimères”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56106, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chimère is recorded at frequency rank #25,587, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃi.mɛʁ\. chimères is at rank #30,519, 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 56106, this pair ranks #123,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of chimère vs chimères
Shared letters: cehimrè. Private to "chimère": -. Private to "chimères": s.
"chimère" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV · "chimères" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chimère" for "chimères" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "chimère" or "chimères" show up more?
Useful next steps
"chimère" and "chimères" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "chimère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chimères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #123,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chimère" and "chimères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chimère vs commère". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #123,223 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.