césarsvscésureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“césars” and “césure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#24,171
“césars” frequency rank
#44,409
“césure” frequency rank
68580
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature césars césure
Definition Pluriel de césar. Coupure d’un vers. Sorte de repos qui est placé en des endroits différents selon la nature des vers.

Where the eye mixes césars and césure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. césars (CVCVCC) and césure (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
césars
6 ch
césure

Why the eye confuses césars with césure

A purely visual mix-up. césars (\se.zaʁ\) and césure (\se.zyʁ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68580, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

césars is recorded at frequency rank #24,171, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.zaʁ\. césure is at rank #44,409, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.zyʁ\.

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 68580, this pair ranks #58,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of césars vs césure

Shared letters: crsé. Private to "césars": a. Private to "césure": eu.

"césars" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "césure" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "césars" for "césure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\se.zaʁ\ versus \se.zyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "césars" or "césure" show up more?
"césars" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,171 in our French list, against #44,409 for "césure". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "césars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "césure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "césars" and "césure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs césure". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #58,585 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list