censor
/ˈsɛnsə/
"censor" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“censor” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #18,034 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #18,034
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 13
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - 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 ...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | censor |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɛnsə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #18,034 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 13 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “censor” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for censor is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɛnsə/. Corpus data places it at rank #18,034 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for censor, with forms such as "ccensor", "cennsor", and "cenosr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "Conor", "Cesar", "center", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is borrowed from Latin cēnsor (“magistrate; critic”), from cēnseō (“to give an opinion, judge; to assess, reckon; to decree, determine”) + -sor (variant of -tor (suffix forming masculine agent nouns)). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“t… The correct English form is censor, spelled C-E-N-S-O-R.
Definition
- 1One 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.
- 2A high-ranking official who was responsible for the supervision of subordinate government officials.
- 3An 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 media.
- 4A college or university official whose duties vary depending on the institution.
- 5One who censures or condemns.
- 6An algorithm that approves or rejects something on grounds of taste or morality etc.
Etymology
The noun is borrowed from Latin cēnsor (“magistrate; critic”), from cēnseō (“to give an opinion, judge; to assess, reckon; to decree, determine”) + -sor (variant of -tor (suffix forming masculine agent nouns)). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“to announce, proclaim; to put in order”). The English word is cognate with Late Middle English sensour, Proto-Iranian *cánhati (“to declare; to explain”), Sanskrit शंसति (śaṃsati, “to declare”). The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccensor,cennsor,cenosr,censorr,censro,censsor,cesnor,cnesor,ecnsor
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of censor - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Using “censor”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-E-N-S-O-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsɛnsə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Conor” - see the side-by-side comparison. censor vs Conor
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.