scellésvsstèlesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#23,364
“scellés” frequency rank
#40,515
“stèles” frequency rank
63879
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scellés stèles
Definition Masculin pluriel de scellé. Pluriel de stèle.

Where the eye mixes scellés and stèles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. scellés runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against stèles's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
scellés
6 ch
stèles

Look-alike desk: scellés vs stèles

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: scellés is \se.le\ while stèles is \stɛl\. 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 63879, 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\. stèles is at rank #40,515, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stɛl\.

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 63879, this pair ranks #79,762 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of scellés vs stèles

Shared letters: els. Private to "scellés": cé. Private to "stèles": tè.

"scellés" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "stèles" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "scellés" for "stèles" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "scellés" is an adjective and "stèles" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "scellés" or "stèles" show up more?
"scellés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,364 in our French list, against #40,515 for "stèles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "scellés" and "stèles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "scellés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stèles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,762 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scellés" and "stèles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "socles vs stèles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #79,762 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