Which to use
“seed” is a noun and “semer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,533
- “seed” frequency rank
- #12,864
- “semer” frequency rank
- 54397
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seed | semer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Graine, pépin. | Répandre de la graine ou du grain sur une terre préparée, afin de les faire produire et multiplier. |
Where the eye mixes seed and semer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. seed runs 4 letters (CVVC) against semer's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: seed vs semer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seed is \siːd\ while semer is \sə.me\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seed is recorded at frequency rank #41,533, classified as anoun, pronounced \siːd\. semer is at rank #12,864, tagged as averb, 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 54397, this pair ranks #134,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of seed vs semer
Shared letters: es. Private to "seed": d. Private to "semer": mr.
"seed" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "semer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "seed" and "semer" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "seed" vs "semer" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "seed" and "semer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "seed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "semer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #134,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "seed" and "semer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seed 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 #134,308 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.