sculptervssculptureWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#38,040
“sculpter” frequency rank
#7,760
“sculpture” frequency rank
45800
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sculpter sculpture
Definition Façonner, avec le ciseau ou un autre outil, une figure en relief, en pierre, en marbre, en bois, etc. Art de sculpter.

Where the eye mixes sculpter and sculpture

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. sculpter runs 8 letters (CCVCCCVC) against sculpture's 9 (CCVCCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
sculpter
9 ch
sculpture

Why the eye confuses sculpter with sculpture

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sculpter is \skyl.te\ while sculpture is \skyl.tyʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45800, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sculpter is recorded at frequency rank #38,040, classified as averb, pronounced \skyl.te\. sculpture is at rank #7,760, tagged as anoun, pronounced \skyl.tyʁ\.

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 45800, this pair ranks #199,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sculpter vs sculpture

Shared letters: celprstu. Private to "sculpter": -. Private to "sculpture": -.

"sculpter" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC  ·  "sculpture" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sculpter ← csulpter · scculpter · sclupter · scullpter · sculpetr · sculppter · sculpterr · sculptre
  • sculpture ← csulpture · scculpture · sclupture · scullpture · sculppture · sculptrue · sculptture · sculptuer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sculpter" for "sculpture" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sculpter" is a verb and "sculpture" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "sculpter" or "sculpture" show up more?
"sculpture" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,760 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sculpter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sculpture" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sculpter" and "sculpture" 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 #199,943 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