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ce

ca

masc acc pl of ca (letter); masc loc sg of ca (letter)

1. ca (letter): (gram) letter c; 14th letter of the alphabet; palatal consonant
2. ce (ind): if
3. ce (ind): but; than

Etymology. From Proto-Indo-European *kwe, the same root as Latin que (and) and Greek te (and); the conditional sense developed from a marker of coordination. In Pali, ce marks the protasis of a conditional sentence, while also functioning as an emphatic or contrastive particle (like 'but' or 'than' in comparisons).

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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