Which to use
“censée” is an adjective and “cessez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,511
- “censée” frequency rank
- #9,129
- “cessez” frequency rank
- 17640
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | censée | cessez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de censé. | Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe cesser. |
Where the eye mixes censée and cessez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. censée (CVCCVV) and cessez (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses censée with cessez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: censée is \sɑ̃.se\ while cessez is \sɛ.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17640, 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\. cessez is at rank #9,129, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɛ.se\.
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 17640, this pair ranks #382,201 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of censée vs cessez
Shared letters: ces. Private to "censée": né. Private to "cessez": z.
"censée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "cessez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cessez ← ccessez · cesesz · cesez · cessezz · cessze · csesez · ecssez
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "censée" and "cessez" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "censée" or "cessez" show up more?
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 "cessez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #382,201 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "censée" and "cessez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cédez vs cessez". 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 #382,201 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.