cease
/sis/
"cease" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cease” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #6,769. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #6,769
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To stop.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cease · cease · English
cease · rank #6,769 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #6,769
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH cannabis
Nearest frequency peer: cannabis (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “cease”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- buyer
buyer
93,235 corpus weight
- cannabis
cannabis
93,233 corpus weight
- cease
cease
93,232 corpus weight
- championshi…
championships
93,231 corpus weight
- chapel
chapel
93,230 corpus weight
- cloth
cloth
93,229 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “cease” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cease |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /sis/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,769 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cease” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around cease (IPA /sis/), averb. Corpus frequency is #6,769 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for cease, with forms such as "caese", "ccease", and "ceaes". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CES", "cee", "CSE", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cesen, cessen, from Middle French cesser (“to cease”), from Latin cessō (“leave off”), frequentative of cēdō (“to leave off, go away”). Compare secede. The correct English form is cease, spelled C-E-A-S-E.
Definition
- 1To stop.
- 2To stop doing (something).
- 3To be wanting; to fail; to pass away, perish.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cease appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And with that, his twitching ceased.
And with that, he ceased twitching.
Etymology
From Middle English cesen, cessen, from Middle French cesser (“to cease”), from Latin cessō (“leave off”), frequentative of cēdō (“to leave off, go away”). Compare secede.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- caese
- ccease
- ceaes
- ceasse
- cesae
- ecase
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cease - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "cease"?
What does "cease" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "cease"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cease", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "cease". Here's where to go from here.
- "cease" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "CES". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #6,769 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "C" letter cohort. C–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.