Which to use
“shell” and “stèle” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,066
- “shell” frequency rank
- #25,139
- “stèle” frequency rank
- 43205
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shell | stèle |
|---|---|---|
| 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 ». | Monument monolithe ayant la forme d’un fût de colonne, d’un obélisque, d’une dalle dressée et sculptée ou peinte, qui sert le plus souvent à marquer l’emplacement d’une sépulture. |
Where the eye mixes shell and stèle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses shell with stèle
A purely visual mix-up. shell (\ʃɛl\) and stèle (\stɛl\) 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 43205, 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\. stèle is at rank #25,139, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stɛl\.
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 43205, this pair ranks #219,855 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shell vs stèle
Shared letters: els. Private to "shell": h. Private to "stèle": tè.
"shell" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "stèle" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- shell ← hsell · sehll · shel · shhell · shlel · sshell
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "shell" and "stèle" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "shell" or "stèle" show up more?
Useful next steps
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 "stèle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #219,855 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shell" and "stèle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stase vs stèle". 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 #219,855 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.