cede vs cine, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cede” is a verb and “cine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,425
“cede” frequency rank: #40,614
“cine” frequency rank: 75039
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cede	cine
Definition	To give up; yield to another.	cinefilm

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cede and cine apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

cede

4 ch

cine

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cede is /siːd/ while cine is /ˈsɪni/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cede is recorded at frequency rank #34,425, classified as averb, pronounced /siːd/. cine is at rank #40,614, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɪni/.

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 75039, this pair ranks #34,405 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cede vs cine

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cede": d. Private to "cine": in.

"cede" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

cede ← ccede · cdee · ceed · ecde
cine ← ccine · cien · cinne · cnie

Frequency comparison

cede#34,425

cine#40,614

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cede" and "cine" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cede" is a verb and "cine" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cede" or "cine"?

"cede" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,425 in our English list, against #40,614 for "cine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cede vs cine

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “cede”; for a noun, it's “cine”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cede” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable