seillevssellesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#45,308
“seille” frequency rank
#21,466
“selles” frequency rank
66774
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seille selles
Definition Bassine, munie d’oreilles dans lesquelles on passe une corde en guise d’anse et qui sert à transporter les liquides, en particulier, le mout tiré du pressoir. Excréments humains, formés des résidus de la digestion.

Where the eye mixes seille and selles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. seille (CVVCCV) and selles (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
seille
6 ch
selles

Visual trap between seille and selles

A purely visual mix-up. seille (\sɛj\) and selles (\sɛl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seille is recorded at frequency rank #45,308, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛj\. selles is at rank #21,466, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛl\.

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 66774, this pair ranks #66,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of seille vs selles

Shared letters: els. Private to "seille": i. Private to "selles": -.

"seille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "selles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seille ← esille · seile · seilel · selile · sielle · sseille
  • selles ← eslles · selels · seles · selless · sellse · sleles · sselles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seille" and "selles" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sɛj\ versus \sɛl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "seille" or "selles"?
"selles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,466 in our French list, against #45,308 for "seille". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "selles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seille" and "selles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seille vs skill". 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 #66,297 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