seigneurvsseigneursTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,149
“seigneur” frequency rank
#6,757
“seigneurs” frequency rank
7906
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seigneur seigneurs
Definition Maître, possesseur d’un pays, d’un État, d’une terre. Pluriel de seigneur.

Same sound, different letters: seigneur vs seigneurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. seigneur runs 8 letters (CVVCCVVC) against seigneurs's 9 (CVVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
seigneur
9 ch
seigneurs

Homophone desk: seigneur vs seigneurs

This is the hard kind. seigneur and seigneurs are pronounced identically (\sɛ.ɲœʁ\) 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) - “seigneur” sits inside “seigneurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7906, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seigneur is recorded at frequency rank #1,149, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ.ɲœʁ\. seigneurs is at rank #6,757, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛ.ɲœʁ\.

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 7906, this pair ranks #421,764 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seigneur vs seigneurs

Shared letters: eginrsu. Private to "seigneur": -. Private to "seigneurs": -.

"seigneur" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC  ·  "seigneurs" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seigneur ← esigneur · segineur · seigenur · seiggneur · seigneru · seigneurr · seignneur · seignuer
  • seigneurs ← esigneurs · segineurs · seigenurs · seiggneurs · seignerus · seigneurrs · seigneurss · seigneusr

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seigneur" and "seigneurs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\sɛ.ɲœʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "seigneur" or "seigneurs" show up more?
"seigneur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,149 in our French list, against #6,757 for "seigneurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seigneur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "seigneurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #421,764 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seigneur" and "seigneurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seigneuries vs seigneurs". 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 #421,764 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