sensvssensorWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,357
“sens” frequency rank
#8,089
“sensor” frequency rank
29446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sens sensor
Definition Clipping of sensitivity. A device or organ that detects certain external stimuli and responds in a distinctive manner.

Letter map: sens vs sensor

Shared letters muted; letters that set sens and sensor apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
sens
6 ch
sensor

Corpus notes: sens and sensor

sens and sensor are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sens” sits inside “sensor”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29446, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sens is recorded at frequency rank #21,357, classified as anoun. sensor is at rank #8,089, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛn.sə/.

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 29446, this pair ranks #362,935 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sens vs sensor

Shared letters: ens. Private to "sens": -. Private to "sensor": or.

"sens" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sensor" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sensesns · senns · senss · sesn · ssens
  • sensoresnsor · sennsor · senosr · sensorr · sensro · senssor · sesnor · snesor

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sens" for "sensor" ever safe?
No. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sens” sits inside “sensor”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "sens" vs "sensor" - which ranks higher?
"sensor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,089 in our English list, against #21,357 for "sens". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sens" and "sensor".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sensor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #362,935 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sens" and "sensor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sens vs suds". 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 #362,935 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