sceau

\so\

/\so\/ noun

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

The verdict

“sceau” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #12,051. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#12,051
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Cachet officiel où sont gravées en creux la figure, les armoiries, la devise d’un roi, d’un prince, d’un état, d’un corps, d’une communauté, d’un seigneur, etc. et dont on fait des empreintes avec ...

Corpus desk

Index FR-sceau · sceau · French

sceau · rank #12,051 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #12,051
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH scandales

Nearest frequency peer: scandales (-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 « sceau »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « sceau » 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).

sceau vs sea
60% similar
sceau vs seu
60% similar
sceau vs sean
60% similar

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

Key facts for sceau
PropertyValue
Headwordsceau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\so\
Letters5
Frequency rank#12,051
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « sceau »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).sceause 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 « scandales » (#12,050), « signataires » (#12,052), « Salomon » (#12,049). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sceau » est au #12,051. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around sceau (IPA \so\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #12,051 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for sceau, with forms such as "cseau", "scaeu", and "scceau". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sea", "seu", "sean", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is sceau, spelled S-C-E-A-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Cachet officiel où sont gravées en creux la figure, les armoiries, la devise d’un roi, d’un prince, d’un état, d’un corps, d’une communauté, d’un seigneur, etc. et dont on fait des empreintes avec de la cire ou autrement sur des lettres, des diplômes, des actes publics, etc., pour les rendre authentiques.
  2. 2
    Empreinte faite par le sceau.
  3. 3
    Action de sceller, ou temps et lieu où l’on scelle, où l’on appose les sceaux de l’état aux actes qui doivent en être revêtus.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le sceau du roi. - Les sceaux de l’État. - Le sceau d’un ministère. - Le sceau de l’Université, de l’Académie française, etc.
  2. Mettre son sceau. - Apposer le sceau. - Contrefaire un sceau.

This word in other languages

seal(English)sello(Español)Siegel(Deutsch)selo(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • cseau
  • scaeu
  • scceau
  • sceua
  • secau
  • ssceau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

cseau2scaeu2scceau1sceua2secau2ssceau1
Edit distance from "sceau"

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 "sceau"?
"sceau" is spelled S-C-E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \so\.
What does "sceau" mean?
As a noun, "sceau" means: Cachet officiel où sont gravées en creux la figure, les armoiries, la devise d’un roi, d’un prince, d’un état, d’un corps, d’une communauté, d’un seigneur, etc. et dont on fait des empreintes avec ...
What words are commonly confused with "sceau"?
"sceau" is commonly confused with "sea", "seu", "sean". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sceau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sceau" is \so\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sceau" come from?
"sceau" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

urine#12,081varié#12,083perse#12,017Émile#12,086

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

slip6 variantssoft6 variantsmath6 variantsgreat6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list