censure
/ˈsɛn.ʃə/noun, verb
censure is spelled C-E-N-S-U-R-E. The wrong spelling people search most is sensure: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 67 of all searches for the word. Censure is a noun meaning “The act of blaming, criticizing, or condemning as wrong; reprehension”. The plural of censure is censures.
How many letters and syllables are in censure?
| Letters | 7: C-E-N-S-U-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 31,168th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, sensure, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell censure?
Censure is spelled C-E-N-S-U-R-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 67 of the searches for censure in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is censure?
Censure appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,168th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce censure?
- UK /ˈsɛn.ʃə/
- UK /ˈsɛns.jʊə/
- UK /ˈsɛn.ʃ(j)ʊə/
Censure has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-censure.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with censure
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of censure
- censures plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- censuring participle, present
- censured participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does censure mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of blaming, criticizing, or condemning as wrong; reprehension.
- 2
Official reprimand.
- 3
A judicial or ecclesiastical sentence or reprimand; condemnatory judgment.
- 4
obsoleteA judgment (either favorable or unfavorable); an opinion.
verb
- 1
To criticize harshly.
- 2
To formally rebuke.
- 3
obsoleteTo form or express a judgment in regard to; to estimate; to judge.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Censure in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Tadel, Zurechtweisung, Kritik, Ermahnung, Tadeln, Zurechtweisen |
| Spanish | censura, reproche, reprehensión , reprochar, requintear, censurar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does censure come from?
From 1350–1400 Middle English censure, from Old French, from Latin censūra (“censor's office or assessment”), from censēre (“to consider, to assess, to value, to judge, to tax, etc.”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).