Did you know?
Do you cede or seed control?
Cede means "to yield or grant typically by treaty." Most of the verb senses of seed are concerned with planting seeds (either literal, as of plants, or figuratively, as of ideas). However, the word may also be used to mean "to schedule (tournament players or teams) so that superior ones will not meet in early rounds." If you relinquish or yield something you are ceding it, and if you are organizing the participants in a tournament you are seeding them.
Did you know?
Cede is often a formal term used in discussing territory and rights, but is also used less formally. So, for example, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. in 1898, following the Spanish-American War, and the U.S. ceded control of the Panama Canal to Panama in 1999. Critics warn that we are ceding leadership in alternative-energy technology to China. Citizens of one European country or another are always worrying that their own country is ceding too much power to the European Union. A tennis player doesn't have any choice when she cedes her no. 1 ranking to a rival.
Examples of cede in a Sentence
ArsTechnica, 30 May 2025
The Denali Commission took on project management responsibilities in 2016 but ceded control to the BIA three years ago after the agency announced a $25 million grant funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
—Emily Schwing, ProPublica, 29 May 2025
Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out ceding territory to Moscow in any peace deal.
—David Brennan, ABC News, 25 May 2025
First ceded to the U.S. in 1900, American Samoa had been under the U.S. Navy until being transferred in 1956 to the Interior Department.
—Noël Fletcher, Forbes.com, 23 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for cede
Cite this Entry
“Cede.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cede. Accessed 5 Jun. 2025.
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cede
verb
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