ensure
/ɪnˈʃʊɹ/verb
ensure is spelled E-N-S-U-R-E. The wrong spelling people search most is enshure: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 1,000 of all searches for the word. Ensure is a verb meaning “To make sure or certain of something (usually some future event or condition)”.
How many letters and syllables are in ensure?
| Letters | 6: E-N-S-U-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 50 times per million words; the 2,041st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, enshure, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell ensure?
Ensure is spelled E-N-S-U-R-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 1,039 of the searches for ensure 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 ensure?
Ensure appears 50 times per million words in written English, the 2,041st 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 ensure?
- /ɪnˈʃɔː(ɹ)/
- /ɪnˈʃʊə(ɹ)/
- US /ɪnˈʃʊɹ/
Ensure 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ensure.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with ensure
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: insure.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with ensure?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ensure from its last stressed vowel (/ʊɹ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ensure
- ensures present, singular, he/she/it
- ensuring participle, present
- ensured participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ensure mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To make sure or certain of something (usually some future event or condition).
I use an alarm clock to ensure that I get up on time.
- 2
obsoleteTo make a pledge to (someone); to promise, guarantee (someone of something); to assure.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ensure in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense make sure or certain:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | s'assurer, garantir, assurer |
| German | sicherstellen, gewährleisten |
| Portuguese | garantir, assegurar |
| Spanish | asegurarse, garantizarse, velar por |
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 ensure come from?
From Middle English ensuren, from Anglo-Norman enseurer, from Old French seur (“sure”). Doublet of insure.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What to look up after ensure
- ensure or insure? the difference
- assure or ensure? the difference
- secure rhymes with ensure
- assure rhymes with ensure
- ensuite the entry before
- ent the entry after
- English words starting with E the most written first
- The most misspelled English words
- Count the syllables of any word
- Check the spelling of a text