Which to use
“shell” and “skull” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,066
- “shell” frequency rank
- #49,364
- “skull” frequency rank
- 67430
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shell | skull |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Interface utilisateur d’un système d’exploitation, principalement destinée à lancer d’autres programmes et gérer leurs interactions. Le terme est généralement utilisé pour parler d’une interface en ligne de commande. La norme ISO/IEC 2382-28:1995 donne les traductions « coquille » et « système essentiel ». | Crâne. |
Where the eye mixes shell and skull
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between shell and skull
A purely visual mix-up. shell (\ʃɛl\) and skull (\ˈskəl\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67430, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shell is recorded at frequency rank #18,066, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛl\. skull is at rank #49,364, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈskəl\.
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 67430, this pair ranks #63,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shell vs skull
Shared letters: ls. Private to "shell": eh. Private to "skull": ku.
"shell" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "skull" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shell" and "skull" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "shell" or "skull"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "shell" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "skull" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shell" and "skull" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "skull vs Soult". 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 #63,478 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.