semésvssentesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#45,869
“semés” frequency rank
#42,044
“sentes” frequency rank
87913
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature semés sentes
Definition Masculin pluriel de semé. Pluriel de sente.

Where the eye mixes semés and sentes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. semés runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against sentes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
semés
6 ch
sentes

Look-alike desk: semés vs sentes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: semés is \sə.me\ while sentes is \sɑ̃t\. 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 87913, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

semés is recorded at frequency rank #45,869, classified as anadj, pronounced \sə.me\. sentes is at rank #42,044, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɑ̃t\.

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 87913, this pair ranks #7,651 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of semés vs sentes

Shared letters: es. Private to "semés": mé. Private to "sentes": nt.

"semés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sentes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sentes ← esntes · senets · senntes · sentess · sentse · senttes · setnes · snetes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "semés" for "sentes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "semés" is an adjective and "sentes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "semés" or "sentes" show up more?
"sentes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,044 in our French list, against #45,869 for "semés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "semés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sentes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,651 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "semés" and "sentes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semés vs sémites". 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 #7,651 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