Which to use
“cesse” and “cosse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,464
- “cesse” frequency rank
- #33,195
- “cosse” frequency rank
- 35659
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cesse | cosse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fin, relâche. | Enveloppe de la graine, gousse, écorce. |
Where the eye mixes cesse and cosse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cesse and cosse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: cesse vs cosse
A purely visual mix-up. cesse (\sɛs\) and cosse (\kɔs\) 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 a single letter - e in “cesse” becomes o in “cosse”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35659, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cesse is recorded at frequency rank #2,464, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛs\. cosse is at rank #33,195, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔs\.
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 35659, this pair ranks #275,150 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cesse vs cosse
Shared letters: ces. Private to "cesse": -. Private to "cosse": o.
"cesse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cesse" and "cosse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cesse" or "cosse" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cesse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cosse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #275,150 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cesse" and "cosse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs cosse". 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 #275,150 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.