scorevssecouéTell them apart

Quick tell: score is a noun, secoué is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“score” is a noun and “secoué” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,545
“score” frequency rank
#18,063
“secoué” frequency rank
20608
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature score secoué
Definition Nombre de points qu’un joueur, une équipe a marqué. Participe passé masculin singulier de secouer.

Where the eye mixes score and secoué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
score
6 ch
secoué

Why the eye confuses score with secoué

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: score is \skɔʁ\ while secoué is \sə.kwe\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20608, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

score is recorded at frequency rank #2,545, classified as anoun, pronounced \skɔʁ\. secoué is at rank #18,063, tagged as averb, pronounced \sə.kwe\.

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 20608, this pair ranks #367,412 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of score vs secoué

Shared letters: ceos. Private to "score": r. Private to "secoué": .

"score" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "secoué" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • scorecsore · sccore · scoer · scorre · scroe · socre · sscore

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "score" and "secoué" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "score" is a noun and "secoué" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "score" or "secoué" show up more?
"score" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,545 in our French list, against #18,063 for "secoué". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "score" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "secoué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #367,412 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "score" and "secoué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "secoué vs secouent". 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 #367,412 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