Which to use
“serve” and “seven” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,566
- “serve” frequency rank
- #22,094
- “seven” frequency rank
- 36660
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | serve | seven |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme attachée au domaine qu’elle cultive moyennant redevance au seigneur qui en est le propriétaire. | (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour le chiffre 7. |
Where the eye mixes serve and seven
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between serve and seven
A purely visual mix-up. serve (\sɛʁv\) and seven (\ˈsɛv.n\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
serve is recorded at frequency rank #14,566, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁv\. seven is at rank #22,094, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈsɛv.n\.
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 36660, this pair ranks #268,044 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of serve vs seven
Shared letters: esv. Private to "serve": r. Private to "seven": n.
"serve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "seven" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "serve" for "seven" ever safe?
Which is more common, "serve" or "seven"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "serve" and "seven" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "serve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "seven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #268,044 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "serve" and "seven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semée vs seven". 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 #268,044 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.