cedevscesenTell them apart

Which to use

“cede” and “cesen” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,526
“cede” frequency rank
#45,189
“cesen” frequency rank
61715
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cede cesen
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de ceder. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de cesar.

Where the eye mixes cede and cesen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cede
5 ch
cesen

Why the eye confuses cede with cesen

A purely visual mix-up. cede ([ˈseð̞e]) and cesen ([ˈsesẽn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61715, 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]. cesen is at rank #45,189, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈsesẽn].

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 61715, this pair ranks #54,474 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cede vs cesen

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cede": d. Private to "cesen": ns.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cedeccede · cdee · cedde · ceed · ecde
  • cesenccesen · cecen · ceesn · cesenn · cesne · cessen · cseen · ecsen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cede" and "cesen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈseð̞e] versus [ˈsesẽn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cede" or "cesen" show up more?
"cede" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,526 in our Spanish list, against #45,189 for "cesen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cede" and "cesen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cede" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cesen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,474 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cede" and "cesen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ceres vs cesen". 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 #54,474 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