cedevsceraConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#16,526
“cede” frequency rank
#9,952
“cera” frequency rank
26478
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cede cera
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de ceder. Se llama así a cualquier éster de los ácidos grasos con alcoholes de peso molecular elevado, es decir, son moléculas que se obtienen por esterificación de un ácido graso con un alcohol monovalente lineal de cadena larga. Por ejemplo la cera de abeja. Son sustancias altamente insolubles en medios acuosos y a temperatura ambiente se presentan sólidas y duras. En los animales la podemos encontrar en la superficie del cuerpo, piel, plumas. En vegetales las ceras recubren en la epidermis de frutos, tallos, junto con la cutícula o la suberina, que evitan la pérdida de agua por evaporación en las plantas.

Where the eye mixes cede and cera

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cede
4 ch
cera

Look-alike desk: cede vs cera

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cede is [ˈseð̞e] while cera is [ˈseɾa]. 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 26478, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cede is recorded at frequency rank #16,526, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈseð̞e]. cera is at rank #9,952, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈseɾa].

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 26478, this pair ranks #231,429 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cede vs cera

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cede": d. Private to "cera": ar.

"cede" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cera" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cedeccede · cdee · cedde · ceed · ecde
  • ceraccera · cerra · ecra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cede" and "cera" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cede" is a verb and "cera" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cede" or "cera" show up more?
"cera" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,952 in our Spanish list, against #16,526 for "cede". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cede" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #231,429 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cede" and "cera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cede vs cederá". 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 #231,429 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list