censorvscondorWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“censor” and “condor” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,034
“censor” frequency rank
#30,375
“condor” frequency rank
48409
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature censor condor
Definition 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 and morality. Either of two New World vultures, Vultur gryphus of the Andes or Gymnogyps californianus, a nearly extinct vulture of the mountains of California.

Where the eye mixes censor and condor

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
censor
6 ch
condor

Look-alike desk: censor vs condor

A purely visual mix-up. censor (/ˈsɛnsə/) and condor (/ˈkɒndɔː(ɹ)/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

censor is recorded at frequency rank #18,034, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛnsə/. condor is at rank #30,375, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɒndɔː(ɹ)/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 48409, this pair ranks #193,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of censor vs condor

Shared letters: cnor. Private to "censor": es. Private to "condor": d.

"censor" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "condor" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • censorccensor · cennsor · cenosr · censorr · censro · censsor · cesnor · cnesor
  • condorccondor · cnodor · codnor · conddor · condorr · condro · conndor · conodr

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "censor" and "condor" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsɛnsə/ versus /ˈkɒndɔː(ɹ)/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "censor" or "condor" show up more?
"censor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,034 in our English list, against #30,375 for "condor". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "censor" and "condor" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "censor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "condor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #193,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "censor" and "condor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cond vs condor". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #193,329 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list