Which to use
“semis” is a noun and “sévi” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,280
- “semis” frequency rank
- #42,643
- “sévi” frequency rank
- 62923
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | semis | sévi |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mise en terre des semences ; action de semer. | Participe passé masculin singulier de sévir. |
Where the eye mixes semis and sévi
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. semis runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against sévi's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: semis vs sévi
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: semis is \sə.mi\ while sévi is \se.vi\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62923, 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\. sévi is at rank #42,643, tagged as averb, pronounced \se.vi\.
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 62923, this pair ranks #84,535 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of semis vs sévi
Shared letters: is. Private to "semis": em. Private to "sévi": vé.
"semis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "sévi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- semis ← esmis · seims · semiss · semmis · semsi · smeis · ssemis
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "semis" and "sévi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "semis" or "sévi" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "semis" and "sévi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "semis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sévi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #84,535 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "semis" and "sévi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sepp vs sévi". 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 #84,535 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.