seméevssexesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#47,039
“semée” frequency rank
#8,619
“sexes” frequency rank
55658
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature semée sexes
Definition Féminin singulier de semé. Pluriel de sexe.

Where the eye mixes semée and sexes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. semée (CVCVV) and sexes (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
semée
5 ch
sexes

Visual trap between semée and sexes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: semée is \sə.me\ while sexes is \sɛks\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55658, 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\. sexes is at rank #8,619, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛks\.

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 55658, this pair ranks #126,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of semée vs sexes

Shared letters: es. Private to "semée": mé. Private to "sexes": x.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sexes ← esxes · seexs · sexess · sexse · sexxes · ssexes · sxees

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "semée" for "sexes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "semée" is an adjective and "sexes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "semée" vs "sexes" - which ranks higher?
"sexes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,619 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "semée" and "sexes" 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 "sexes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #126,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "semée" and "sexes" 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 #126,071 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