Which to use
“semis” and “sémites” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,280
- “semis” frequency rank
- #49,381
- “sémites” frequency rank
- 69661
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | semis | sémites |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mise en terre des semences ; action de semer. | Pluriel de sémite. |
Where the eye mixes semis and sémites
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. semis runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against sémites's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: semis vs sémites
A purely visual mix-up. semis (\sə.mi\) and sémites (\se.mit\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
semis is recorded at frequency rank #20,280, classified as anoun, pronounced \sə.mi\. sémites is at rank #49,381, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.mit\.
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 69661, this pair ranks #54,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of semis vs sémites
Shared letters: eims. Private to "semis": -. Private to "sémites": té.
"semis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "sémites" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- semis ← esmis · seims · semiss · semmis · semsi · smeis · ssemis
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "semis" for "sémites" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "semis" or "sémites" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "semis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sémites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "semis" and "sémites" 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 #54,302 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.