Which to use
“censés” is an adjective and “cese” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,654
- “censés” frequency rank
- #47,212
- “cese” frequency rank
- 57866
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | censés | cese |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de censé. | Cessation, action de cesser. |
Where the eye mixes censés and cese
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. censés runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against cese's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses censés with cese
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: censés 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 57866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
censés is recorded at frequency rank #10,654, 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 57866, this pair ranks #112,471 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of censés vs cese
Shared letters: ces. Private to "censés": né. Private to "cese": -.
"censés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cese ← ccese · cees · csee · ecse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "censés" and "cese" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "censés" or "cese" show up more?
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 "censés" 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 #112,471 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "censés" 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 #112,471 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.