Which to use
“cese” and “clés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,212
- “cese” frequency rank
- #2,666
- “clés” frequency rank
- 49878
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cese | clés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cessation, action de cesser. | Pluriel de clé. |
Where the eye mixes cese and clés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cese vs clés
A purely visual mix-up. cese (\ˈθese\) and clés (\kle\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49878, 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\. clés is at rank #2,666, 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 49878, this pair ranks #167,174 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cese vs clés
Shared letters: cs. Private to "cese": e. Private to "clés": lé.
"cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "clés" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cese ← ccese · cees · csee · ecse
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cese" and "clés" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "cese" or "clés" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cese" and "clés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cese" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #167,174 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cese" and "clés" 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 #167,174 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.