Which to use
“semée” is an adjective and “sève” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,039
- “semée” frequency rank
- #23,043
- “sève” frequency rank
- 70082
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | semée | sève |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de semé. | Liquide nutritif formé des sucs que les racines puisent dans le sol et répandent dans toutes les parties d’un végétal. |
Where the eye mixes semée and sève
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. semée runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against sève's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: semée vs sève
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: semée is \sə.me\ while sève is \sɛv\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70082, 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\. sève is at rank #23,043, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛv\.
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 70082, this pair ranks #52,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of semée vs sève
Shared letters: es. Private to "semée": mé. Private to "sève": vè.
"semée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "sève" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "semée" and "sève" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "semée" vs "sève" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "semée" and "sève" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "semée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sève" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #52,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "semée" and "sève" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semée vs semés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #52,709 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.