Which to use
“séisme” is a noun and “seize” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,140
- “séisme” frequency rank
- #6,659
- “seize” frequency rank
- 17799
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | séisme | seize |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Suite de secousses qui affecte, avec plus ou moins de force, la surface de la terre ou les fonds marins, et qui résulte de la propagation d'ondes provenant notamment du mouvement en profondeur des plaques de l'écorce terrestre. | Le nombre cardinal situé après quinze en y ajoutant un, et avant dix-sept, représenté 16 en chiffres arabes, et XVI en chiffres romains. |
Where the eye mixes séisme and seize
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: séisme vs seize
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: séisme is \se.ism\ while seize is \sɛz\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
séisme is recorded at frequency rank #11,140, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.ism\. seize is at rank #6,659, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɛz\.
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 17799, this pair ranks #381,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of séisme vs seize
Shared letters: eis. Private to "séisme": mé. Private to "seize": z.
"séisme" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "seize" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- seize ← esize · seiez · seizze · sezie · sieze · sseize
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "séisme" and "seize" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "séisme" or "seize" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "séisme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "seize" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #381,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "séisme" and "seize" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seille vs séisme". 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 #381,450 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.