Which to use
“sign” is a noun and “signée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,257
- “sign” frequency rank
- #6,242
- “signée” frequency rank
- 37499
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sign | signée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Panneau (routier, de rue) ; panonceau ; pancarte (sur un mur, une vitrine, etc.) ; affiche (publicitaire), écriteau (handmade sign). | Féminin singulier de signé. |
Where the eye mixes sign and signée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sign runs 4 letters (CVCC) against signée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses sign with signée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sign is \saɪn\ while signée is \si.ɲe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sign” sits inside “signée”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sign is recorded at frequency rank #31,257, classified as anoun, pronounced \saɪn\. signée is at rank #6,242, tagged as anadj, pronounced \si.ɲe\.
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 37499, this pair ranks #262,091 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sign vs signée
Shared letters: gins. Private to "sign": -. Private to "signée": eé.
"sign" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "signée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- sign ← isgn · sgin · siggn · signn · ssign
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sign" and "signée" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "sign" vs "signée" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sign" and "signée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sign" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "signée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #262,091 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sign" and "signée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sign vs sind". 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 #262,091 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.