Which to use
“ceased” is a verb and “celled” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,450
- “ceased” frequency rank
- #48,129
- “celled” frequency rank
- 57579
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ceased | celled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of cease | Containing cells; cellular. |
Letter map: ceased vs celled
Shared letters muted; letters that set ceased and celled apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. ceased (CVVCVC) and celled (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for ceased / celled
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ceased is averb and celledanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57579, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ceased is recorded at frequency rank #9,450, classified as averb, pronounced /siːst/. celled is at rank #48,129, tagged as anadj.
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 57579, this pair ranks #118,401 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ceased vs celled
Shared letters: cde. Private to "ceased": as. Private to "celled": l.
"ceased" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "celled" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ceased" for "celled" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ceased" or "celled"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ceased" and "celled".
- Full dictionary entry for "ceased" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "celled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #118,401 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ceased" and "celled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "celled vs culled". 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 #118,401 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.