carevsceseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“care” and “cese” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,426
“care” frequency rank
#47,212
“cese” frequency rank
65638
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature care cese
Definition Entaille faite dans le pin pour recueillir la gemme. Cessation, action de cesser.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set care and cese apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
care
4 ch
cese

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. care (\kaʁ\) and cese (\ˈθese\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65638, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

care is recorded at frequency rank #18,426, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaʁ\. cese is at rank #47,212, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈθese\.

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 65638, this pair ranks #71,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of care vs cese

Shared letters: ce. Private to "care": ar. Private to "cese": s.

"care" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carecaer · ccare · crae
  • ceseccese · cees · csee · ecse

Frequency comparison

care#18,426
cese#47,212

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "care" and "cese" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kaʁ\ versus \ˈθese\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "care" or "cese"?
"care" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,426 in our French list, against #47,212 for "cese". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering care vs cese

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “care” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list