Spelling Tips: -Cede, -Ceed or -Sede?

We pronounce -cede, -ceed and -sede to sound like ‘seed’. But this makes it easy to misspell words that end with one of these letter groups. So to make sure your writing is always error free, check out our guide to some common -cede, -ceed and -sede words below.

Words Ending in -Cede

The most common letter combination of those above is -cede. We find it in words such as:

For most words that have a ‘seed’ sound at the end, this is the correct spelling. There are four main exceptions to this in English: three words that end -ceed and one that ends -sede.

Words Ending in -Ceed

The three common verbs in English that end with -ceed are:

• Exceed (i.e. to go beyond or surpass something)
• Proceed (i.e. to move forward or go ahead with something)
• Succeed (i.e. to come next in a sequence or triumph)

If you can remember these words, it’ll be easy to avoid errors.

Supersede: The Only Word Ending in -Sede

‘Supersede’ is the only word that ends with the letters -sede in English. It means ‘replace or succeed’, especially when something new makes something old redundant. For example, we might say:

This model supersedes all past home computers.

This would simply mean that the new computer is more powerful than the ones that came before it. In addition, people often misspell this term as ‘supercede’, so keep an eye out for that rogue ‘c’.

Summary: -Cede, -Ceed or -Sede?

The letter combinations -cede, -ceed and -sede can all be pronounced ‘seed’. As such, we need to be careful with words that end with these letters:

• There are several words that end -cede in English, including ‘recede’ and ‘concede’. By itself, ‘cede’ can also mean ‘give up’ or ‘yield to’.
• The three words that end with -ceed are ‘exceed’, ‘proceed’ and ‘succeed’.
• The only word in English that ends in -sede is ‘supersede’.

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