ciseau

/\si.zo\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#28,882

in French word usage

Misspellings

7

tracked variants

Confusables

5

similar word pairs

ciseau is aFrenchnoun. It means: Lame, pièce métallique aiguisée à son extrémité, servant à couper ou à travailler le bois, le métal, etc. Pronounced \si.zo\. Often confused with coteau and Comeau.

Key facts for ciseau
PropertyValue
Headwordciseau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\si.zo\
Letters6
Frequency rank#28,882
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of ciseau in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for ciseau is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \si.zo\. Corpus data places it at rank #28,882 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for ciseau, with forms such as "cciseau", "ciesau", and "cisaeu". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "coteau", "Comeau", "ciseaux", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is ciseau, spelled C-I-S-E-A-U, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lame, pièce métallique aiguisée à son extrémité, servant à couper ou à travailler le bois, le métal, etc.
  2. 2
    Autres outils à la fonction ou à la forme similaires.
  3. 3
    Manière de travailler d’un sculpteur.
  4. 4
    Insecte de l’ordre des hémiptères, famille des gerridés ou des hydrométridés, capables de se déplacer à la surface de l’eau, les pattes antérieures ne servant qu’à la prédation.
  5. 5
    Prise de lutte serrant l’adversaire entre les deux jambes, comme les deux lames d’une paire de ciseaux.
  6. 6
    Technique de saut en hauteur.
  7. 7
    Position permettant le frottement des parties génitales.
  8. 8
    Instrument à deux lames pivotant sur un axe qui se chevauchent en partie pour couper ou rogner.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: cciseau,ciesau,cisaeu,ciseua,cisseau,csieau,icseau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for ciseau

Misspelling Variants of "ciseau"

cciseau7ciesau6cisaeu6ciseua6cisseau7csieau6icseau6
Misspelling Variants of "ciseau"

Frequency rank: #28,882 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ciseau"?
"ciseau" is spelled C-I-S-E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \si.zo\.
What does "ciseau" mean?
As a noun, "ciseau" means: Lame, pièce métallique aiguisée à son extrémité, servant à couper ou à travailler le bois, le métal, etc.
What words are commonly confused with "ciseau"?
"ciseau" is commonly confused with "coteau", "Comeau", "ciseaux". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ciseau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ciseau" is \si.zo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ciseau" come from?
"ciseau" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.