sculptéevssculpterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“sculptée” and “sculpter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#33,462
“sculptée” frequency rank
#38,040
“sculpter” frequency rank
71502
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sculptée sculpter
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de sculpter. Façonner, avec le ciseau ou un autre outil, une figure en relief, en pierre, en marbre, en bois, etc.

Same sound, different letters: sculptée vs sculpter

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. sculptée (CCVCCCVV) and sculpter (CCVCCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
sculptée
8 ch
sculpter

Same sound, different spelling - sculptée / sculpter

This is the hard kind. sculptée and sculpter are pronounced identically (\skyl.te\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sculptée is recorded at frequency rank #33,462, classified as averb, pronounced \skyl.te\. sculpter is at rank #38,040, tagged as averb, pronounced \skyl.te\.

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 71502, this pair ranks #47,345 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sculptée vs sculpter

Shared letters: celpstu. Private to "sculptée": é. Private to "sculpter": r.

"sculptée" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVV  ·  "sculpter" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sculpter ← csulpter · scculpter · sclupter · scullpter · sculpetr · sculppter · sculpterr · sculptre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sculptée" for "sculpter" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\skyl.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "sculptée" or "sculpter" show up more?
"sculptée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,462 in our French list, against #38,040 for "sculpter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "sculptée" / "sculpter". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sculptée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sculpter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,345 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sculptée" and "sculpter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sculpte vs sculpter". 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 #47,345 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