signavssignerConfusable pair

Which to use

“signa” and “signer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,371
“signa” frequency rank
#3,365
“signer” frequency rank
33736
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature signa signer
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de signer. Revêtir de sa signature.

Where the eye mixes signa and signer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. signa runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against signer's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
signa
6 ch
signer

Why the eye confuses signa with signer

A purely visual mix-up. signa (\si.ɲa\) and signer (\si.ɲe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

signa is recorded at frequency rank #30,371, classified as averb, pronounced \si.ɲa\. signer is at rank #3,365, tagged as averb, 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 33736, this pair ranks #288,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of signa vs signer

Shared letters: gins. Private to "signa": a. Private to "signer": er.

"signa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "signer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • signa ← isgna · sgina · sigan · siggna · signna · singa · ssigna
  • signer ← isgner · sginer · sigenr · siggner · signerr · signner · signre · ssigner

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "signa" and "signer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\si.ɲa\ versus \si.ɲe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "signa" or "signer"?
"signer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,365 in our French list, against #30,371 for "signa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "signa" and "signer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "signa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "signer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "signa" and "signer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "signa 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 #288,618 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list