casedvscededConfusable pair

Which to use

“cased” and “ceded” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,121
“cased” frequency rank
#27,768
“ceded” frequency rank
75889
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cased ceded
Definition simple past and past participle of case simple past and past participle of cede

Where the eye mixes cased and ceded

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cased
5 ch
ceded

Look-alike desk: cased vs ceded

A purely visual mix-up. cased (/keɪst/) and ceded (/ˈsiːdɪd/) 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 75889, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cased is recorded at frequency rank #48,121, classified as averb, pronounced /keɪst/. ceded is at rank #27,768, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈsiːdɪd/.

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 75889, this pair ranks #31,744 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cased vs ceded

Shared letters: cde. Private to "cased": as. Private to "ceded": -.

"cased" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "ceded" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casedacsed · caesd · casde · casedd · cassed · ccased · csaed
  • cededcceded · cdeed · cedde · cedded · cededd · ceedd · ecded

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cased" for "ceded" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/keɪst/ versus /ˈsiːdɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cased" or "ceded"?
"ceded" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,768 in our English list, against #48,121 for "cased". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "cased" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ceded" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,744 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cased" and "ceded" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cased vs clasped". 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 #31,744 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list