Censer or censor?
censer is a noun meaning “An ornamental container for burning incense, especially during religious…”; censor is a noun meaning “One of the two magistrates who originally administered the census of citizens…”. They sound the same (/ˈsɛn.sə/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) censor is about 21 times as common as censer.
What is the difference between censer and censor?
| censer | censor | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | An ornamental container for burning incense, especially during religious ceremonies A person who censes, a person who perfumes with incense | One of the two magistrates who originally administered the census of citizens, and by Classical times (between the 8th century B.C.E. and the 6th century C.E.)… A high-ranking official who was responsible for the supervision of subordinate government officials To review for, and if necessary to remove or suppress, content from books, films, correspondence, and other media which is regarded as objectionable (for… |
| Example | none recorded | The Ancient Roman censors were part of the cursus honorum, a series of public offices held during a political career, like consuls and… |
| Forms | censers | censors |
| Pronunciation | /ˈsɛn.sə/ /ˈsɛn.sɚ/ | /ˈsɛnsə/ /ˈsɛnsɚ/ |
| In writing | about once in every 9 million words | 2.3 times per million words |
Sources: censer and censor in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of censer and censor
censer
- 1
An ornamental container for burning incense, especially during religious ceremonies
- 2
A person who censes, a person who perfumes with incense
censor
- 1
One of the two magistrates who originally administered the census of citizens, and by Classical times (between the 8th century B.C.E. and the 6th century C.E.) was a high judge of public behaviour…
The Ancient Roman censors were part of the cursus honorum, a series of public offices held during a political career, like consuls and praetors
- 2
To review for, and if necessary to remove or suppress, content from books, films, correspondence, and other media which is regarded as objectionable (for example, obscene, likely to incite violence…
The people responsible for censoring films have seen some startling things in their time
- 3
A hypothetical subconscious agency which filters unacceptable thought before it reaches the conscious mind
- 4
A high-ranking official who was responsible for the supervision of subordinate government officials
- 5
To partially obscure an observation
Early dropout is one cause of right-censoring
- 6
An official responsible for the removal or suppression of objectionable material (for example, if obscene or likely to incite violence) or sensitive content in books, films, correspondence, and other…
The headmaster was an even stricter censor of his boarding pupils’ correspondence than the enemy censors had been of his own when the country was occupied
- 7
A college or university official whose duties vary depending on the institution
- 8
An algorithm that approves or rejects something on grounds of taste or morality etc
I tried using a dirty word as my user name for the online game, but the censor rejected it
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, censer or censor?
censer appears about once in every 9 million words; censor 2.3 times per million words.
censer about once in every 9 million wordscensor 2.3 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).