Which to use
“seal” and “shell” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,746
- “seal” frequency rank
- #18,066
- “shell” frequency rank
- 52812
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seal | shell |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sceau. | Interface utilisateur d’un système d’exploitation, principalement destinée à lancer d’autres programmes et gérer leurs interactions. Le terme est généralement utilisé pour parler d’une interface en ligne de commande. La norme ISO/IEC 2382-28:1995 donne les traductions « coquille » et « système essentiel ». |
Where the eye mixes seal and shell
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: seal vs shell
A purely visual mix-up. seal (\siːl\) and shell (\ʃɛl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seal is recorded at frequency rank #34,746, classified as anoun, pronounced \siːl\. shell is at rank #18,066, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛl\.
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 52812, this pair ranks #145,111 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of seal vs shell
Shared letters: els. Private to "seal": a. Private to "shell": h.
"seal" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "shell" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "seal" for "shell" ever safe?
Which is more common, "seal" or "shell"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "seal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shell" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #145,111 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "seal" and "shell" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seal vs Sepp". 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 #145,111 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.