censer
/ˈsɛn.sə/
"censer" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“censer” is uncommon English (frequency #91,343 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #91,343
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An ornamental container for burning incense, especially during religious ceremonies.
Corpus desk
Index EN-censer · censer · English
censer · rank #91,343 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #91,343
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH cesspit
Nearest frequency peer: cesspit (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “censer”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- caretaking
caretaking
8,664 corpus weight
- casse
casse
8,661 corpus weight
- censer
censer
8,658 corpus weight
- cesspit
cesspit
8,657 corpus weight
- Charpentier
Charpentier
8,655 corpus weight
- Cheetham
Cheetham
8,652 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “censer” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | censer |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɛn.sə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #91,343 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “censer” in English
Rare enough to double-check
censer is uncommon English at frequency #91,343 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsɛn.sə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for censer, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman censier, from Old French encensier, from encens (“incense”). The correct English form is censer, spelled C-E-N-S-E-R.
Definition
- 1An ornamental container for burning incense, especially during religious ceremonies.
- 2A person who censes, a person who perfumes with incense.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how censer appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A thousand wax tapers burned in honour of the Madonna. Four beautiful children swung the silver censers before her picture, till a cloud of incense arose and floated in broken masses to the fretted roof, and the whole air was heavy with perfume.
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer / Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
Etymology
From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman censier, from Old French encensier, from encens (“incense”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "censer", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).