scievsscindéTell them apart

Quick tell: scie is a noun, scindé is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#12,863
“scie” frequency rank
#46,441
“scindé” frequency rank
59304
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scie scindé
Definition Outil, instrument ou machine possédant une lame dentée (rectiligne ou circulaire) et dont on se sert pour scier. Qualifie un polynôme qui peut s'écrire comme un produit de polynômes de degré 1.

Where the eye mixes scie and scindé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. scie runs 4 letters (CCVV) against scindé's 6 (CCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
scie
6 ch
scindé

Why the eye confuses scie with scindé

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: scie is \si\ while scindé is \sɛ̃.de\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

scie is recorded at frequency rank #12,863, classified as anoun, pronounced \si\. scindé is at rank #46,441, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɛ̃.de\.

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 59304, this pair ranks #103,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of scie vs scindé

Shared letters: cis. Private to "scie": e. Private to "scindé": dné.

"scie" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "scindé" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • scie ← csie · sccie · scei · sice · sscie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "scie" and "scindé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "scie" is a noun and "scindé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "scie" or "scindé"?
"scie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,863 in our French list, against #46,441 for "scindé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "scie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "scindé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scie" and "scindé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scindé vs sind". 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 #103,919 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