segmentvssermentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“segment” and “serment” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,160
“segment” frequency rank
#6,239
“serment” frequency rank
14399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature segment serment
Definition Partie de la ligne droite située entre deux points. Affirmation ou promesse faite en attestant Dieu, un être ou un objet sacré.

Where the eye mixes segment and serment

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
segment
7 ch
serment

Look-alike desk: segment vs serment

A purely visual mix-up. segment (\sɛɡ.mɑ̃\) and serment (\sɛʁ.mɑ̃\) 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 a single letter - g in “segment” becomes r in “serment”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

segment is recorded at frequency rank #8,160, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛɡ.mɑ̃\. serment is at rank #6,239, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁ.mɑ̃\.

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 14399, this pair ranks #396,855 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of segment vs serment

Shared letters: emnst. Private to "segment": g. Private to "serment": r.

"segment" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "serment" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • segmentesgment · segemnt · seggment · segmennt · segmentt · segmetn · segmment · segmnet
  • sermentesrment · semrent · seremnt · sermennt · sermentt · sermetn · sermment · sermnet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "segment" for "serment" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sɛɡ.mɑ̃\ versus \sɛʁ.mɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "segment" vs "serment" - which ranks higher?
"serment" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,239 in our French list, against #8,160 for "segment". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "segment" and "serment" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "segment" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "serment" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,855 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "segment" and "serment" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sèchent vs segment". 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 #396,855 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