Which to use
“seau” and “seaux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,010
- “seau” frequency rank
- #30,806
- “seaux” frequency rank
- 46816
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seau | seaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Récipient cylindrique, ou plus souvent tronconique, de plastique, de bois ou de métal, en général pourvu d’une anse, servant à transporter un liquide, du sable ou autres. | Pluriel de seau. |
Same sound, different letters: seau vs seaux
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. seau runs 4 letters (CVVV) against seaux's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - seau and seaux
This is the hard kind. seau and seaux are pronounced identically (\so\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “seau” sits inside “seaux”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seau is recorded at frequency rank #16,010, classified as anoun, pronounced \so\. seaux is at rank #30,806, tagged as anoun, pronounced \so\.
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 46816, this pair ranks #191,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of seau vs seaux
Shared letters: aesu. Private to "seau": -. Private to "seaux": x.
"seau" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "seaux" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "seau" and "seaux" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "seau" vs "seaux" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "seau" / "seaux". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "seau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "seaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "seau" and "seaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seaux vs seum". 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 #191,846 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.