cedevscodecTell them apart

Quick tell: cede is a verb, codec is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#34,425
“cede” frequency rank
#43,084
“codec” frequency rank
77509
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cede codec
Definition To give up; yield to another. A device or program capable of performing transformations on a data stream or signal.

Letter map: cede vs codec

Shared letters muted; letters that set cede and codec apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. cede runs 4 letters (CVCV) against codec's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
cede
5 ch
codec

Grammar separator: cede vs codec

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cede is averb and codecanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77509, 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/. codec is at rank #43,084, tagged as anoun.

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 77509, this pair ranks #27,077 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cede vs codec

Shared letters: cde. Private to "cede": -. Private to "codec": o.

"cede" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "codec" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cede ← ccede · cdee · ceed · ecde
  • codec ← ccodec · cdoec · codce · coddec · codecc · coedc · ocdec

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cede" and "codec" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cede" is a verb and "codec" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "cede" or "codec" show up more?
"cede" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,425 in our English list, against #43,084 for "codec". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "cede" and "codec". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cede" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "codec" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,077 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cede" and "codec" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "codec vs cower". 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 #27,077 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