cesevscesseConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#47,212
“cese” frequency rank
#2,464
“cesse” frequency rank
49676
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cese cesse
Definition Cessation, action de cesser. Fin, relâche.

Where the eye mixes cese and cesse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cese
5 ch
cesse

Why the eye confuses cese with cesse

A purely visual mix-up. cese (\ˈθese\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49676, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cese is recorded at frequency rank #47,212, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈθese\. 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 49676, this pair ranks #168,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cese vs cesse

Shared letters: ces. Private to "cese": -. Private to "cesse": -.

"cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cesse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ceseccese · cees · csee · ecse
  • cesseccesse · ceses · csese · ecsse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cese" for "cesse" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈθese\ versus \sɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cese" vs "cesse" - which ranks higher?
"cesse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,464 in our French list, against #47,212 for "cese". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "cese" 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 #168,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cese" and "cesse" 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 #168,737 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