cease and stop share a recorded sense, so the question is not what they mean but which one fits. cease means “put an end to a state or an activity”. stop means “the event of something ending”. stop is the more common of the two in everyday English.
/ˈsis/
1.v.put an end to a state or an activity
“Quit teasing your little brother”
2.v.have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
“the bronchioles terminate in a capillary bed”
3.n.(`cease' is a noun only in the phrase `without cease') end
/ˈstɑp/
1.n.the event of something ending
“it came to a stop at the bottom of the hill”
2.n.the act of stopping something
“the third baseman made some remarkable stops”
3.n.a brief stay in the course of a journey
“they made a stopover to visit their friends”
| cease | stop | |
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation | /ˈsis/ | /ˈstɑp/ |
| Said | sees | stahp |
| Syllables | 1 | 1 |
| Letters | 5 | 4 |
| Parts of speech | verb, noun | noun, verb |
| Senses | 3 | 22 |
| How common | Common | Core |
| Synonyms | discontinue, stop, give up | halt |
Full entry for cease · Full entry for stop · More comparisons