Which to use
“sceau” and “sceaux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,051
- “sceau” frequency rank
- #11,131
- “sceaux” frequency rank
- 23182
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sceau | sceaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Pluriel de sceau. |
Same sound, different letters: sceau vs sceaux
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. sceau runs 5 letters (CCVVV) against sceaux's 6 (CCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: sceau vs sceaux
This is the hard kind. sceau and sceaux are pronounced identically (\so\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “sceau” sits inside “sceaux”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sceau is recorded at frequency rank #12,051, classified as anoun, pronounced \so\. sceaux is at rank #11,131, tagged as anoun, pronounced \so\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 23182, this pair ranks #353,905 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sceau vs sceaux
Shared letters: acesu. Private to "sceau": -. Private to "sceaux": x.
"sceau" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV · "sceaux" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sceau" for "sceaux" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "sceau" or "sceaux" show up more?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "sceau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sceaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #353,905 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sceau" and "sceaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sceau vs scrap". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #353,905 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.