Which to use
“scellé” is a noun and “scellés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,002
- “scellé” frequency rank
- #23,364
- “scellés” frequency rank
- 40366
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | scellé | scellés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deux cachets de cire reliés par un ruban que l’on appose à des serrures, à des armoires, etc., par autorité de justice, pour empêcher de les ouvrir. | Masculin pluriel de scellé. |
Same sound, different letters: scellé vs scellés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. scellé runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against scellés's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: scellé vs scellés
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: scellé and scellés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \se.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “scellé” sits inside “scellés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
scellé is recorded at frequency rank #17,002, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.le\. scellés is at rank #23,364, tagged as anadj, pronounced \se.le\.
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 40366, this pair ranks #241,062 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of scellé vs scellés
Shared letters: celsé. Private to "scellé": -. Private to "scellés": -.
"scellé" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "scellés" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "scellé" for "scellés" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "scellé" or "scellés" show up more?
Useful next steps
"scellé" and "scellés" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "scellé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "scellés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #241,062 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "scellé" and "scellés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scellés vs stalles". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #241,062 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.