Which to use
“sembler” and “sombrer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,577
- “sembler” frequency rank
- #17,008
- “sombrer” frequency rank
- 27585
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sembler | sombrer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Paraître avoir une certaine qualité ou une certaine manière d’être ; avoir l’air, l’apparence. | Être submergé, couler par l’effet soit d’un coup de vent, soit d’une voie d’eau. |
Where the eye mixes sembler and sombrer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. sembler and sombrer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: sembler vs sombrer
A purely visual mix-up. sembler (\sɑ̃.ble\) and sombrer (\sɔ̃.bʁe\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27585, 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\. sombrer is at rank #17,008, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɔ̃.bʁe\.
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 27585, this pair ranks #328,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sembler vs sombrer
Shared letters: bemrs. Private to "sembler": l. Private to "sombrer": o.
"sembler" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC · "sombrer" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sembler" and "sombrer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sembler" or "sombrer"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sembler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sombrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #328,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sembler" and "sombrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sombrer vs sommier". 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 #328,040 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.