surcease
/səˈsiːs/
"surcease" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“surcease” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Cessation; stop, stopping; end. Respite, intermission.
Corpus desk
Index EN-surcease · surcease · English
surcease · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | surcease |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /səˈsiːs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “surcease” in English
Rare enough to double-check
surcease is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /səˈsiːs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Cessation; stop, stopping; end. Respite, intermission.".
surcease has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Anglo-Norman surseser, from Old French sursis, past participle of surseoir, from Latin supersedēre. Spelling later influenced by association with unrelated cease, which likely also influenced the meaning. Related to supersede. The correct English form is surcease, spelled S-U-R-C-E-A-S-E.
Definition
- 1Cessation; stop, stopping; end. Respite, intermission.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how surcease appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And first of all, it is more then time, there were an ende and surcease made of this immodest and deformed manner of writting latelie entertained, whereby matter of religion is handled in the stile of the stage.
It it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well / It were done quickly: if the assassination / Could trammel up the consequence, and catch / With his surcease success;
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman surseser, from Old French sursis, past participle of surseoir, from Latin supersedēre. Spelling later influenced by association with unrelated cease, which likely also influenced the meaning. Related to supersede.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.