siècle

/\sjɛkl\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#533

in French word usage

Misspellings

9

tracked variants

Confusables

18

similar word pairs

siècle is aFrenchnoun. It means: Période de cent ans. Pronounced \sjɛkl\. It ranks #533 in French word frequency. Often confused with siège and socle.

Key facts for siècle
PropertyValue
Headwordsiècle
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sjɛkl\
Letters6
Frequency rank#533
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs18
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for siècle is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sjɛkl\. Corpus data places it at rank #533 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for siècle, with forms such as "isècle", "sicèle", and "siecle". 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 18 confusable-pair relationships, "siège", "socle", "sigle", 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 siècle, spelled S-I-È-C-L-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Période de cent ans.
  2. 2
    Durée de cent années dans la logique du calendrier julien puis grégorien. Le iᵉʳ siècle comprend les années 1–100, et le iiᵉ siècle, 101–200, etc. Nous sommes maintenant dans le xxiᵉ siècle des années 2001–2100.
  3. 3
    Période plus ou moins longue.
  4. 4
    Temps rendu célèbre par le règne de quelque grand prince, ou par les actions, les ouvrages de quelque grand homme.
  5. 5
    Temps qui paraît long pour quelqu’un.
  6. 6
    Vie civile et profane, opposée à l’état d’une vie chrétienne ou religieuse.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: isècle,sicèle,siecle,sièccle,siècel,sièclle,sièlce,ssiècle,sèicle

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for siècle

Misspelling Variants of "siècle"

isècle6sicèle6siecle6sièccle7siècel6sièclle7sièlce6ssiècle7
Misspelling Variants of "siècle"

Frequency rank: #533 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "siècle"?
"siècle" is spelled S-I-È-C-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \sjɛkl\.
What does "siècle" mean?
As a noun, "siècle" means: Période de cent ans.
What words are commonly confused with "siècle"?
"siècle" is commonly confused with "siège", "socle", "sigle". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "siècle"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "siècle" is \sjɛkl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "siècle" come from?
"siècle" 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 S 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.