Which to use
“centers” and “century” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,473
- “centers” frequency rank
- #1,011
- “century” frequency rank
- 4484
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | centers | century |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of center | A period of one hundred consecutive years; often specifically a numbered period with conventional start and end dates, e.g., the twentieth century, which stretches from (strictly) 1901 through 2000, or (informally) 1900 through 1999. The first century AD was from 1 to 100. |
Where the eye mixes centers and century
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. centers (CVCCVCC) and century (CVCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between centers and century
A purely visual mix-up. centers (/ˈsɛn.(t)ɚz/) and century (/ˈsɛnt͡ʃʊɹi/) 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 4484, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
centers is recorded at frequency rank #3,473, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛn.(t)ɚz/. century is at rank #1,011, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛnt͡ʃʊɹi/.
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 4484, this pair ranks #518,772 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of centers vs century
Shared letters: cenrt. Private to "centers": s. Private to "century": uy.
"centers" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "century" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "centers" and "century" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "centers" vs "century" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "centers" and "century" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "centers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "century" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #518,772 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "centers" and "century" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "centers vs Conyers". 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 #518,772 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.