Which to use
“scellé” and “semelle” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,002
- “scellé” frequency rank
- #20,572
- “semelle” frequency rank
- 37574
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | scellé | semelle |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Pièce de cuir, de caoutchouc, qui fait le dessous d’une chaussure, d’une botte, d’une pantoufle. |
Where the eye mixes scellé and semelle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. scellé runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against semelle's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: scellé vs semelle
A purely visual mix-up. scellé (\se.le\) and semelle (\sə.mɛl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37574, 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\. semelle is at rank #20,572, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sə.mɛl\.
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 37574, this pair ranks #261,546 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of scellé vs semelle
Shared letters: els. Private to "scellé": cé. Private to "semelle": m.
"scellé" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "semelle" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- semelle ← esmelle · seemlle · semele · semelel · semlele · semmelle · smeelle · ssemelle
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "scellé" and "semelle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "scellé" vs "semelle" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "scellé" and "semelle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "scellé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "semelle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #261,546 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "scellé" and "semelle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semée vs semelle". 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 #261,546 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.