Which to use
“seals” is a verb and “semés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,199
- “seals” frequency rank
- #45,869
- “semés” frequency rank
- 94068
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seals | semés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe to seal. | Masculin pluriel de semé. |
Where the eye mixes seals and semés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. seals (CVVCC) and semés (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between seals and semés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seals is \siːl\ while semés is \sə.me\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 94068, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seals is recorded at frequency rank #48,199, classified as averb, pronounced \siːl\. semés is at rank #45,869, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sə.me\.
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 94068, this pair ranks #1,870 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of seals vs semés
Shared letters: es. Private to "seals": al. Private to "semés": mé.
"seals" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "semés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- seals ← esals · saels · sealls · sealss · seasl · selas · sseals
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "seals" and "semés" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "seals" vs "semés" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "seals" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "semés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,870 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "seals" and "semés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seals vs sépales". 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 #1,870 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.