séchéevssécherWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#30,390
“séchée” frequency rank
#10,592
“sécher” frequency rank
40982
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature séchée sécher
Definition Action de faire sécher. Rendre sec.

Same sound, different letters: séchée vs sécher

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. séchée (CVCCVV) and sécher (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
séchée
6 ch
sécher

Homophone desk: séchée vs sécher

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: séchée and sécher carry the same recorded pronunciation, \se.ʃe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40982, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

séchée is recorded at frequency rank #30,390, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.ʃe\. sécher is at rank #10,592, tagged as averb, pronounced \se.ʃe\.

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 40982, this pair ranks #236,469 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of séchée vs sécher

Shared letters: cehsé. Private to "séchée": -. Private to "sécher": r.

"séchée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "sécher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "séchée" and "sécher" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "séchée" is a noun and "sécher" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "séchée" or "sécher" show up more?
"sécher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,592 in our French list, against #30,390 for "séchée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"séchée" and "sécher" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "séchée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sécher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #236,469 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "séchée" and "sécher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "séchée vs sèchent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #236,469 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