Which to use
“censée” is an adjective and “cese” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,511
- “censée” frequency rank
- #47,212
- “cese” frequency rank
- 55723
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | censée | cese |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de censé. | Cessation, action de cesser. |
Where the eye mixes censée and cese
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. censée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against cese's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: censée vs cese
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: censée is \sɑ̃.se\ while cese is \ˈθese\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55723, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
censée is recorded at frequency rank #8,511, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.se\. 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 55723, this pair ranks #125,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of censée vs cese
Shared letters: ces. Private to "censée": né. Private to "cese": -.
"censée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cese ← ccese · cees · csee · ecse
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "censée" and "cese" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "censée" vs "cese" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "censée" 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 #125,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "censée" 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 #125,619 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.