Which to use
“cèdre” and “cesse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,508
- “cèdre” frequency rank
- #2,464
- “cesse” frequency rank
- 30972
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cèdre | cesse |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Fin, relâche. |
Where the eye mixes cèdre and cesse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cèdre and cesse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: cèdre vs cesse
A purely visual mix-up. cèdre (\sɛdʁ\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30972, 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\. 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 30972, this pair ranks #306,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cèdre vs cesse
Shared letters: ce. Private to "cèdre": drè. Private to "cesse": s.
"cèdre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cesse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cesse ← ccesse · ceses · csese · ecsse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cèdre" and "cesse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cèdre" or "cesse"?
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 "cèdre" 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 #306,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cèdre" and "cesse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cedar vs cèdre". 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 #306,822 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.