scellésvssellesConfusable pair

Quick tell: scellés is a adjective, selles is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“scellés” is an adjective and “selles” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,364
“scellés” frequency rank
#21,466
“selles” frequency rank
44830
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scellés selles
Definition Masculin pluriel de scellé. Excréments humains, formés des résidus de la digestion.

Where the eye mixes scellés and selles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. scellés runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against selles's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
scellés
6 ch
selles

Look-alike desk: scellés vs selles

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: scellés is \se.le\ while selles is \sɛl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44830, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

scellés is recorded at frequency rank #23,364, classified as anadj, pronounced \se.le\. selles is at rank #21,466, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛl\.

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 44830, this pair ranks #207,503 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of scellés vs selles

Shared letters: els. Private to "scellés": cé. Private to "selles": -.

"scellés" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "selles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • selles ← eslles · selels · seles · selless · sellse · sleles · sselles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "scellés" for "selles" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "scellés" is an adjective and "selles" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "scellés" or "selles"?
"selles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,466 in our French list, against #23,364 for "scellés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "scellés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "selles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,503 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scellés" and "selles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scellés vs stalles". 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 #207,503 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list