Which to use
“cèdre” and “cese” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,508
- “cèdre” frequency rank
- #47,212
- “cese” frequency rank
- 75720
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cèdre | cese |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce d’arbre du genre Cedrus, conifère de grande taille de la famille des Pinacées, aux branches horizontales en plans superposés et à cônes globuleux et dressés, souvent utilisé pour l’ornementation et dont le bois passe pour incorruptible. | Cessation, action de cesser. |
Where the eye mixes cèdre and cese
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cèdre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against cese's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cèdre and cese
A purely visual mix-up. cèdre (\sɛdʁ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cèdre is recorded at frequency rank #28,508, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛdʁ\. 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 75720, this pair ranks #33,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cèdre vs cese
Shared letters: ce. Private to "cèdre": drè. Private to "cese": s.
"cèdre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cese ← ccese · cees · csee · ecse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cèdre" for "cese" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cèdre" or "cese"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cèdre" 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 #33,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cèdre" 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 #33,195 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.