ceed

Ceed is not an independent English word but a morpheme derived from the Latin verb cedere, meaning to go, yield, or withdraw. In modern English, ceed appears primarily as the stem of longer words formed with prefixes, such as pro-, ex-, or re-, and the related suffix -cede appears in several forms. The spelling ceed versus -cede reflects different historical pathways through Latin and French.

Common words containing this root include proceed (to go forward), precede (to come before), exceed (to go beyond), succeed (to achieve a desired result or to follow in sequence), recede (to move back), concede (to admit or yield), accede (to agree or to assume an office), intercede (to intervene on another’s behalf), and secede (to withdraw from an organization).

Historically, many English -ceed and -cede forms trace to Latin cedere via Old French; the spelling chosen often mirrors the word’s specific etymology. Phonetically the core sequence /siːd/ is common in English pronunciations such as proceed, exceed, and secede. As a linguistic morpheme, ceed denotes movement, progression, or yielding rather than functioning as a stand-alone word.

Note: In some contexts, upper-case CEED can denote acronyms or program names, which are distinct from the etymology of the root.