ciseau

\si.zo\

/\si.zo\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ciseau” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #28,882. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#28,882
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Lame, pièce métallique aiguisée à son extrémité, servant à couper ou à travailler le bois, le métal, etc.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ciseau · ciseau · French

ciseau · rank #28,882 · 7 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #28,882
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH cheptel

Nearest frequency peer: cheptel (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « ciseau »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « ciseau » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ciseau vs coteau
67% similar
ciseau vs Comeau
50% similar
ciseau vs ciseaux
86% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

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)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « ciseau »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.ciseause place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « cheptel » (#28,881), « citadine » (#28,883), « chartier » (#28,879). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « ciseau » est au #28,882. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around ciseau (IPA \si.zo\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #28,882 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for ciseau, with forms such as "cciseau", "ciesau", and "cisaeu". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "coteau", "Comeau", "ciseaux", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is ciseau, spelled C-I-S-E-A-U.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how ciseau appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Est-ce ainsi, ô Sylvius, qu’un jour mon souvenir glissera sur ton cœur fatigué ? Ou bien, comme la pierre fidèle que le ciseau pénètre et rend éloquente, garderas-tu l’empreinte à tout jamais ?
  2. Sur l’établi du charpentier, un pied de chaise en réparation gisait à côté du ciseau qui ne l’avait qu’entamé, […].

Synonyms

couteaulamebédanearaignée d’eaugerrishydromètre

This word in other languages

chisel(English)cincel(Español)Meißel(Deutsch)cinzel(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • cciseau
  • ciesau
  • cisaeu
  • ciseua
  • cisseau
  • csieau
  • icseau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ciseau - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

cciseau1ciesau2cisaeu2ciseua2cisseau1csieau2icseau2
Edit distance from "ciseau"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

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. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ciseau", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

bénite#28,868coupon#28,900bright#28,862bourde#28,858

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

bulbe7 variantsbigot7 variantsforza7 variantsfrappa7 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list