casevsceseConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,916
“case” frequency rank
#47,212
“cese” frequency rank
52128
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature case cese
Definition Petite habitation traditionnelle, sous les tropiques. Cessation, action de cesser.

Where the eye mixes case and cese

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

4 ch
case
4 ch
cese

Why the eye confuses case with cese

A purely visual mix-up. case (\kaz\) 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 differ by a single letter - a in “case” becomes e in “cese”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

case is recorded at frequency rank #4,916, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaz\. 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 52128, this pair ranks #149,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of case vs cese

Shared letters: ces. Private to "case": a. Private to "cese": -.

"case" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caseacse · caes · ccase · csae
  • ceseccese · cees · csee · ecse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "case" and "cese" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kaz\ versus \ˈθese\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "case" or "cese" show up more?
"case" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,916 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.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "case" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cese" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #149,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "case" and "cese" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cese". 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 #149,964 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list