cèdentvscédésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#26,320
“cèdent” frequency rank
#33,204
“cédés” frequency rank
59524
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cèdent cédés
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe céder. Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe céder.

Where the eye mixes cèdent and cédés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cèdent runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against cédés's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cèdent
5 ch
cédés

Look-alike desk: cèdent vs cédés

A purely visual mix-up. cèdent (\sɛd\) and cédés (\se.de\) 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 59524, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cèdent is recorded at frequency rank #26,320, classified as averb, pronounced \sɛd\. cédés is at rank #33,204, tagged as averb, pronounced \se.de\.

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 59524, this pair ranks #102,668 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cèdent vs cédés

Shared letters: cd. Private to "cèdent": entè. Private to "cédés": sé.

"cèdent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "cédés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cèdent" and "cédés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\sɛd\ versus \se.de\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cèdent" or "cédés" show up more?
"cèdent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,320 in our French list, against #33,204 for "cédés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cèdent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cédés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #102,668 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cèdent" and "cédés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cedar vs cédés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #102,668 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