sembler

\sɑ̃.ble\

/\sɑ̃.ble\/ verb

The verdict

“sembler” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #10,577. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#10,577
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
10
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Paraître avoir une certaine qualité ou une certaine manière d’être ; avoir l’air, l’apparence.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sembler · sembler · French

sembler · rank #10,577 · 11 variants · 10 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #10,577
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 10 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH serbe

Nearest frequency peer: serbe (+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 « sembler »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « sembler » 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).

sembler vs semer
71% similar
sembler vs sembles
86% similar
sembler vs sombrer
71% similar

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

Key facts for sembler
PropertyValue
Headwordsembler
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\sɑ̃.ble\
Letters7
Frequency rank#10,577
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs10
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « sembler »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.semblerse 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 « serbe » (#10,578), « répondez » (#10,575), « serviteur » (#10,579). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sembler » est au #10,577. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around sembler (IPA \sɑ̃.ble\), averb. Corpus frequency is #10,577 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for sembler, with forms such as "esmbler", "sebmler", and "sembbler". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "semer", "sembles", "sombrer", 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 any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is sembler, spelled S-E-M-B-L-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Paraître avoir une certaine qualité ou une certaine manière d’être ; avoir l’air, l’apparence.
  2. 2
    Être apparemment, du point de vue de quelqu’un.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. — Mais, demanda Scaër, vous sembliez craindre tout à l’heure qu'on espionnât ce brave garçon... Pourquoi ?
  2. L’administration romaine était extrêmement dure pour tout homme qui lui semblait susceptible de troubler la tranquillité publique.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • esmbler
  • sebmler
  • sembbler
  • sembelr
  • semblerr
  • sembller
  • semblre
  • semlber
  • semmbler
  • smebler
  • ssembler

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sembler - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

esmbler2sebmler2sembbler1sembelr2semblerr1sembller1semblre2semlber2
Edit distance from "sembler"

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 "sembler"?
"sembler" is spelled S-E-M-B-L-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \sɑ̃.ble\.
What does "sembler" mean?
As a verb, "sembler" means: Paraître avoir une certaine qualité ou une certaine manière d’être ; avoir l’air, l’apparence.
What words are commonly confused with "sembler"?
"sembler" is commonly confused with "semer", "sembles", "sombrer". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sembler"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sembler" is \sɑ̃.ble\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sembler" come from?
"sembler" 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 "sembler", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list