cédéevscèdresTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#30,121
“cédée” frequency rank
#41,212
“cèdres” frequency rank
71333
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cédée cèdres
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe céder. Pluriel de cèdre

Where the eye mixes cédée and cèdres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cédée runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against cèdres's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cédée
6 ch
cèdres

Visual trap between cédée and cèdres

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cédée is \se.de\ while cèdres is \sɛdʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cédée is recorded at frequency rank #30,121, classified as averb, pronounced \se.de\. cèdres is at rank #41,212, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛdʁ\.

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 71333, this pair ranks #47,909 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cédée vs cèdres

Shared letters: cde. Private to "cédée": é. Private to "cèdres": rsè.

"cédée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "cèdres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cédée" and "cèdres" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cédée" is a verb and "cèdres" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "cédée" or "cèdres" show up more?
"cédée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,121 in our French list, against #41,212 for "cèdres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cédée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cèdres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,909 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cédée" and "cèdres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cédez vs cèdres". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #47,909 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