Which to use
“cese” and “chère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,212
- “cese” frequency rank
- #2,764
- “chère” frequency rank
- 49976
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cese | chère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cessation, action de cesser. | Personne considérée comme chère, qui est tenu avec une affectueuse haute estime ou, par ironie, à qui est adressée une forme de dédain. |
Where the eye mixes cese and chère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cese vs chère
A purely visual mix-up. cese (\ˈθese\) and chère (\ʃɛʁ\) 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 49976, 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\. chère is at rank #2,764, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛʁ\.
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 49976, this pair ranks #166,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cese vs chère
Shared letters: ce. Private to "cese": s. Private to "chère": hrè.
"cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "chère" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cese ← ccese · cees · csee · ecse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cese" for "chère" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cese" or "chère" 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 "cese" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #166,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cese" and "chère" 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 #166,322 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.