French–English dictionary

se voir

(intransitive) To be visible; to be seen; to appear.

séance

A period of time devoted to a particular activity.

séance photo

A session in which a photographer takes shots of an individual or group.

séant

(slang) The buttocks.

Seattle

A seaport and the largest city in Washington, United States, and the county seat of King County.

seau

The amount held in this container.

Séb

A en given name.

sébaste

Salvelinus, a genus of fish in the salmon family

Sébastien

A en given name.

sec

(heraldry, of a, tree, bush, etc) Whose branches bear no leaves; leafless.

sécante

(trigonometry) In a right triangle, the reciprocal of the cosine of an angle. Symbol: sec

sécessioniste

Having broken away from a larger unit.

sèchage

The air drying of wood.

sèche-cheveux

(chiefly, _, UK) A small electrical appliance for drying hair, by generating a stream of hot air.

sèche-linge

An electrical appliance used for drying clothes, usually by tumbling them in a heated rotating drum.

sécher

To abridge or shorten a work; to remove a portion of a recording during editing.

sécheresse

A period of unusually low rainfall, longer and more severe than a dry spell.

sécheuse

(most often) Short for clothes dryer, tumble dryer

séchoir

(chiefly, _, UK) A small electrical appliance for drying hair, by generating a stream of hot air.

séchoir à cheveux

(chiefly, _, UK) A small electrical appliance for drying hair, by generating a stream of hot air.

second

(nautical) An officer on a merchant ship next in rank to the captain and responsible to the captain for the safety and security of the ship.

second degré

(idiomatic) Not intended seriously; jocular or humorous.

second tour

(politics) A second or further round of an indecisive election, after other candidates (often all but the last two) have been eliminated.

secondaire

Subordinate; secondary; auxiliary.

seconde

(informal) Specifically, a small amount of time.

seconde d'angle

A unit of time historically and commonly defined as a sixtieth of a minute which the International System of Units more precisely defines as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of caesium-133 in a ground state at a temperature of absolute zero and at rest.

seconde main

(of goods) Not new; previously owned and used by another.

secouement

The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.

secouer

(transitive) To push or shake abruptly and roughly.

secourir

(transitive) To provide assistance to (someone or something).

secouriste

Someone who is able to administer first aid.

secours

(uncountable) Action given to provide assistance; aid.

secousse

An act of jolting.

secret

(figuratively) Secret, surreptitious, concealed.

secretaire

One employed to take dictation, or copy manuscripts.

secrétaire général

Chief officer or leader of a political party or organization, especially in Communist contexts.

secrétaire générale

A chairman or chairwoman, someone who presides over a meeting, board, etc.

secrétariat

The office or department of a government secretary.

secrétisme

The habit of keeping secrets.

sectaire

One who is narrow-mindedly devoted to their own ideas and groups, and intolerant of (people of) differing ideas, races, genders, religions, politics, etc.

secte

(chiefly, derogatory) A group, sect or movement following an unorthodox religious or philosophical system of beliefs, especially one in which members remove and exclude themselves from greater society, including family members not part of the cult, and show extreme devotion to a charismatic leader.

secteur

(by extension) An area of a person's responsibility, especially

section

A section of a work, a collection of works, or fragments of works, often manuscripts or transcriptions, created by scholars or advocates, not the original authors, to aid in finding portions of the texts.

sectionné

Separated, cut off or broken apart.

sectionner

To cut, divide or separate into pieces.

séculaire

Happening once in an age or century.

sécularisme

Neutrality towards all religions.

séculier

Not specifically religious; lay or civil, as opposed to clerical; profane.

sécurisant

(countable) Something that secures.

sécuriser

To make safe; to relieve from apprehensions of, or exposure to, danger; to guard; to protect.

sécurité

The condition or feeling of being safe; security; certainty.

sédanoise

(uncountable, typography, printing, dated) The size of type between diamond and agate, standardized as 5-point.

sédatif

(pharmaceutical effect) Calming, soothing, inducing sleep, tranquilizing

sédation

The act of sedating, especially by use of sedatives.

sédiment

A collection of small particles, particularly dirt, that precipitates from a river or other body of water.

sédimentation

The separation of a suspension of solid particles into a concentrated slurry and a supernatant liquid, either to concentrate the solid or to clarify the liquid.

sédiments

(usually, in the plural) Dregs; sediment.

séditieux

Likely to commit mutiny.

sédition

Insurrection or rebellion.

séducteur

Someone who seduces, especially a man who seduces a woman.

séduction

The act of seducing.

séductrice

Someone who seduces, especially a man who seduces a woman.

séduire

(transitive) To trick or mislead.

séduisant

having to power to allure

Seeland

The largest island of Denmark.

segment

(geometry) A part of a straight line bounded by two points.

segmenter

(ambitransitive) To divide into segments or sections.

Ségor

(biblical) One of the Pentapolis, the five ancient cities in the Jordan valley.

ségrégation

(mineralogy) Separation from a mass, and gathering about centers or into cavities at hand through cohesive or adhesive attraction or the crystallizing process.

seiche

Any squid-like cephalopods (marine mollusks) of the order Sepiida that have eight arms, two retractable tentacles, and a calcareous internal shell, and can eject a dark ink when threatened.

seigle

The grass Secale cereale from which the grain is obtained. [from 14th c.]

seigneur

One possessing similar mastery over others; (historical) any feudal superior generally; any nobleman or aristocrat; any chief, prince, or sovereign ruler; in Scotland, a male member of the lowest rank of nobility (the equivalent rank in England is baron)

seigneur de guerre

A military commander or bandit leader wielding civilian power in an area where the government is weak.

seigneur de la guerre

A military commander or bandit leader wielding civilian power in an area where the government is weak.

seigneurie

(historical) The estate controlled by a feudal lord.

sein

A breast, one of a woman's breasts

Seine

A former department of France, the capital city of which was Paris.

seiner

(ambitransitive) To use a seine, to fish with a seine.

seins nus

(chiefly, of a female) Not wearing a garment covering the top half of the body; naked from the waist up.

seize

An archaic English unit of length equivalent to 1⁄20 of an ell or 1⁄16 of a yard (2+1⁄4 inches or 5.715 cm).

seizième

The ordinal form of the number sixteen.

séjour

(countable) A room in a private house used for general social and leisure activities.

séjourner

(intransitive) To reside somewhere temporarily, especially as a guest or lodger.

sel

Of water: containing salt, saline.

sel de la Terre

(idiomatic) A person or group of people considered to represent the most decent and admirable parts of humanity.

sélect

Privileged, specially selected.

sélecteur

(computing, graphical user interface) Any user interface control that selects something.

sélection

(mathematics) One or more elements selected from a set without regard to the order of selection.

sélection naturelle

(evolutionary theory) A process by which heritable traits conferring survival and reproductive advantage to individuals, or related individuals, tend to be passed on to succeeding generations and become more frequent in a population, whereas other less favourable traits tend to become eliminated; the differential survival and reproduction of phenotypes.

sélectionné

That have been selected or chosen.

sélectionner

(transitive) To select e.g. to a sports squad.

sélectivité

The quality of being selective, or extent to which something is selective.

Séléna

A en given name.

Sélène

A en given name.

sélénite

(astronomy) Of or pertaining to travel through space between the Earth and the Moon, or exploration and scientific investigation of the Moon.

sélénium

A nonmetallic chemical element (symbol Se) with an atomic number of 34, used mainly in glassmaking and pigments and as a semiconductor.

sélénographie

(astronomy, geography, cartography) The scientific study of the Moon's geographic features; geography of the Moon.

sélénologie

(chiefly) The scientific study of the Moon’s movements in the heavens and the kinetic influences it has upon and it receives from other astronomical bodies.

selfie

(informal, mobile phones) A photographic self-portrait, especially one taken manually (not using a timer, tripod etc.) with a small camera or mobile phone.

selle

(euphemistic, US, South Asia) A toilet.

selon

Based on what is said or stated by; on the authority of; by the order of.

selon la recette maison

Made at home.

selon moi

according to me

semailles

The act or process by which something is sown.

sémantique

Of or relating to semantics or the meanings of words. [from late 19th c.]

sémaphore

(computer science) A variable or memory location that stores a Boolean true-or-false, yes-or-no value, typically either recording the fact that a certain event has occurred or requesting that a certain optional action take place.

semblable

Having resemblance or similitude; similar; without difference.

semblable à de la dentelle

Made of lace or decorated with it.

semblablement

(manner) In a like style or manner.

sembler

(intransitive, copulative) To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.

semeler

(transitive) To put a sole on a shoe or a boot.

semelle

(footwear) The bottom of a shoe or boot.

sémème

(linguistics) The smallest unit of meaning; especially, the meaning expressed by a morpheme.

semence

(countable) Any small seed-like fruit.

semer

(transitive) To run faster than.

semer la merde

(intransitive) To intervene in a dispute, or in a conversation.

semestre

Half of a school year (US) or academic year such as autumn or spring semester.

semi-

half

semi-automatique

A semi-automatic pistol.

semi-consonne

(phonetics) A sound in speech which has some qualities of a consonant and some qualities of a vowel.

semi-homme

(fantasy) A fictional small humanoid creature featuring in fantasy fiction; a hobbit.

semi-voyelle

(phonetics) A sound in speech which has some qualities of a consonant and some qualities of a vowel.

sémillant

Neat, trim.

séminaire

A theological school for the training of rabbis, priests, or ministers.

séminal

Of or relating to seed or semen.

semioctet

(computing) A unit of memory equal to half a byte, or chiefly four bits.

sémiotique

Of or relating to semiotics or to semantics.

semis

(botany) A young plant grown from seed.

sémitique

Of or pertaining to the Semites; of or pertaining to one or more Semitic peoples.

semoir

An agricultural implement for making holes for sowing seed, and sometimes so formed as to contain seeds and drop them into the hole made.

semonce

A severe, formal or official reproof; reprehension, rebuke, private or public.

semoncer

To reprove in a formal or official way.

sempervirent

Of plants, especially trees, that do not shed their leaves seasonally.

sempiternel

Continuing or persisting in the same state: lasting, enduring; steadfast. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]

Sénat

Any of several legislative bodies. (In countries which have multiple legislative bodies, the Senate is often the more senior.)

sénateur

A member, normally elected, in the house or chamber of a legislature called a senate, as, for instance, the legislatures of the United States and Canada.

sénatrice

A member, normally elected, in the house or chamber of a legislature called a senate, as, for instance, the legislatures of the United States and Canada.

senau

(nautical, historical) A square-rigged sailing vessel similar to a brig formerly used as a warship, with a foremast, a mainmast, and a trysail mast immediately abaft (behind) the mainmast.

Sénécas

A member of a tribe of Native Americans in western New York state.

sénéchal

A steward, particularly (historical) one in charge of a medieval nobleman's estate.

Sénégal

A country in West Africa. Official name: Republic of Senegal.

Sénèque

A Roman cognomen, notably borne by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman stoic philosopher, dramatist, and statesman.

sénescence

The deliberate process of making something (such as an antique) appear (or, in science fiction, become) older than it is.

sénescent

Growing old; decaying with the lapse of time.

sénestre

(heraldry) On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.

sénile

Of, or relating to old age.

séniles

Of, or relating to old age.

sénilité

Decline in judgment and other cognitive functions, associated with aging; senility.

séniorité

A measure of the amount of time a person has been a member of an organization, as compared to other members, and with an eye towards awarding privileges to those who have been members longer.

senne

A long net having floats attached at the top and sinkers (weights) at the bottom, used in shallow water for catching fish.