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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cease.

To stop.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/sis/General-American/siːs/Received-Pronunciation

  1. To stop.

    formal · intransitive
    And with that, his twitching ceased.
    After a short while, it ceased to rain.

  2. To stop doing (something).

    formal · transitive
    And with that, he ceased twitching.

  3. To be wanting; to fail; to pass away, perish.

    intransitive · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin cēdō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin -tō Latin cessōder. Middle French cesserbor. Middle English cesen English cease From Middle English cesen, cessen, from Middle French cesser (“to cease”), from Latin cessō (“leave off”), frequentative of cēdō (“to leave off, go away”). Compare secede.

noun/sis/General-American/siːs/Received-Pronunciation

  1. Cessation; extinction (see without cease).

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin cēdō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin -tō Latin cessōder. Middle French cesserbor. Middle English cesen English cease From Middle English cesen, cessen, from Middle French cesser (“to cease”), from Latin cessō (“leave off”), frequentative of cēdō (“to leave off, go away”). Compare secede.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.