causevscesseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#332
“cause” frequency rank
#2,464
“cesse” frequency rank
2796
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cause cesse
Definition Ce qui fait qu’une chose est ou s’opère. Fin, relâche.

Where the eye mixes cause and cesse

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

5 ch
cause
5 ch
cesse

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cause (\koz\) and cesse (\sɛs\) 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 2796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cause is recorded at frequency rank #332, classified as anoun, pronounced \koz\. cesse is at rank #2,464, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛs\.

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 2796, this pair ranks #435,461 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cause vs cesse

Shared letters: ces. Private to "cause": au. Private to "cesse": -.

"cause" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "cesse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • causeacuse · casue · caues · ccause · cuase
  • cesseccesse · ceses · csese · ecsse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cause" and "cesse" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\koz\ versus \sɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cause" or "cesse"?
"cause" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #332 in our French list, against #2,464 for "cesse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "cause" and "cesse". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cause" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cesse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #435,461 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cause" and "cesse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs cesse". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list