seméevssemerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: semée is a adjective, semer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“semée” is an adjective and “semer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,039
“semée” frequency rank
#12,864
“semer” frequency rank
59903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature semée semer
Definition Féminin singulier de semé. Répandre de la graine ou du grain sur une terre préparée, afin de les faire produire et multiplier.

Same sound, different letters: semée vs semer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. semée (CVCVV) and semer (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
semée
5 ch
semer

Ear matches; page differs - semée and semer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: semée and semer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \sə.me\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

semée is recorded at frequency rank #47,039, classified as anadj, pronounced \sə.me\. 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 59903, this pair ranks #100,556 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of semée vs semer

Shared letters: ems. Private to "semée": é. Private to "semer": r.

"semée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "semer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • semer ← esmer · seemr · semerr · semmer · semre · smeer · ssemer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "semée" and "semer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "semée" is an adjective and "semer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "semée" vs "semer" - which ranks higher?
"semer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,864 in our French list, against #47,039 for "semée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "semée" 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 #100,556 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "semée" and "semer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semée vs semés". 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 #100,556 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