cesevscodeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,212
“cese” frequency rank
#818
“code” frequency rank
48030
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cese code
Definition Cessation, action de cesser. Ensemble de lois ou d’ordonnances relatives à une matière spéciale ou réunies par le législateur.

Where the eye mixes cese and code

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cese
4 ch
code

Visual trap between cese and code

A purely visual mix-up. cese (\ˈθese\) and code (\kɔd\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48030, 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\. code is at rank #818, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔd\.

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 48030, this pair ranks #182,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cese vs code

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cese": s. Private to "code": do.

"cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "code" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ceseccese · cees · csee · ecse
  • codeccode · cdoe · codde · coed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cese" for "code" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈθese\ versus \kɔd\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cese" or "code" show up more?
"code" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #818 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.

What to do next

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 "code" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cese" and "code" 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 #182,188 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