cesevscésureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,212
“cese” frequency rank
#44,409
“césure” frequency rank
91621
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cese césure
Definition Cessation, action de cesser. Coupure d’un vers. Sorte de repos qui est placé en des endroits différents selon la nature des vers.

Where the eye mixes cese and césure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cese runs 4 letters (CVCV) against césure's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
cese
6 ch
césure

Visual trap between cese and césure

A purely visual mix-up. cese (\ˈθese\) 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 differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91621, 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\. 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 91621, this pair ranks #3,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cese vs césure

Shared letters: ces. Private to "cese": -. Private to "césure": rué.

"cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "césure" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cese ← ccese · cees · csee · ecse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cese" for "césure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈθese\ versus \se.zyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cese" or "césure"?
"césure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,409 in our French list, against #47,212 for "cese". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cese" 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 #3,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cese" and "césure" 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 #3,674 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