Which to use
“sembler” and “semer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,577
- “sembler” frequency rank
- #12,864
- “semer” frequency rank
- 23441
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sembler | semer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Paraître avoir une certaine qualité ou une certaine manière d’être ; avoir l’air, l’apparence. | Répandre de la graine ou du grain sur une terre préparée, afin de les faire produire et multiplier. |
Where the eye mixes sembler and semer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. sembler runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against semer's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between sembler and semer
A purely visual mix-up. sembler (\sɑ̃.ble\) and semer (\sə.me\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sembler is recorded at frequency rank #10,577, classified as averb, pronounced \sɑ̃.ble\. 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 23441, this pair ranks #352,465 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sembler vs semer
Shared letters: emrs. Private to "sembler": bl. Private to "semer": -.
"sembler" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC · "semer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sembler" for "semer" ever safe?
Frequency check: "sembler" vs "semer" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "sembler" and "semer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sembler" 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 #352,465 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sembler" and "semer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semer vs soler". 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 #352,465 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.