Which to use
“cese” and “clé” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,212
- “cese” frequency rank
- #1,987
- “clé” frequency rank
- 49199
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cese | clé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cessation, action de cesser. | Instrument de métal que l’on introduit dans une serrure pour ouvrir ou fermer un accès. Ancienne clé à panneton que l'on place et fait tourner dans la serrure d'une porte, d'un coffre, etc. |
Where the eye mixes cese and clé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cese vs clé
A purely visual mix-up. cese (\ˈθese\) and clé (\kle\) 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 49199, 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\. clé is at rank #1,987, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kle\.
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 49199, this pair ranks #172,624 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cese vs clé
Shared letters: c. Private to "cese": es. Private to "clé": lé.
"cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "clé" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cese ← ccese · cees · csee · ecse
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cese" and "clé" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "cese" vs "clé" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
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 "clé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #172,624 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cese" and "clé" 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 #172,624 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.