ciseau
\si.zo\
The verdict
“ciseau” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #28,882 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #28,882
- frequency rank, French
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Lame, pièce métallique aiguisée à son extrémité, servant à couper ou à travailler le bois, le métal, etc.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ciseau |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \si.zo\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #28,882 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ciseau” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for ciseau is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, 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 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
- 1Lame, pièce métallique aiguisée à son extrémité, servant à couper ou à travailler le bois, le métal, etc.
- 2Autres outils à la fonction ou à la forme similaires.
- 3Manière de travailler d’un sculpteur.
- 4Insecte 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.
- 5Prise de lutte serrant l’adversaire entre les deux jambes, comme les deux lames d’une paire de ciseaux.
- 6Technique de saut en hauteur.
- 7Position permettant le frottement des parties génitales.
- 8Instrument à deux lames pivotant sur un axe qui se chevauchent en partie pour couper ou rogner.
This word in other languages
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.
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"?
What does "ciseau" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "ciseau"?
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Using “ciseau”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-I-S-E-A-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \si.zo\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “coteau” - see the side-by-side comparison. ciseau vs coteau
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.