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cease

verb

Simple meaning

To stop doing.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sees
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsis

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. formalintransitivetransitive

    To stop doing (something).

  2. formalintransitive

    To stop.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (formal, transitive) To stop doing (something).

Used this way, cease is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in academic writing contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Formal
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Formal and precise

Where it naturally appears

  • Academic writing

Usage note

Comfortable in writing and prepared speech; in casual conversation a shorter everyday word usually sounds more natural.

Nearby words

  • stop , a specialist term, precise but narrower

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use cease

  • “And with that, his twitching ceased.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

cease firesoon ceaseever ceasecease firing

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • give up

    To stop or quit (an activity, etc.).

  • lay off

    To cease, quit, stop (doing something).

  • stop

    To pronounce (a phoneme) as a stop.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • cease and desist ordernounCompound term

    A judicial remedy issued in order to prohibit a party from doing or continuing to do a certain activity.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to stop doing (something)

lay offstopTechnicalterminate

Antonyms

Sense: to stop doing (something)

begin

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.