censosvscursosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“censos” and “cursos” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#22,298
“censos” frequency rank
#2,875
“cursos” frequency rank
25173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature censos cursos
Definition Forma del plural de censo. Forma del plural de curso.

Where the eye mixes censos and cursos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. censos and cursos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
censos
6 ch
cursos

Why the eye confuses censos with cursos

A purely visual mix-up. censos ([ˈsẽnsos]) and cursos ([ˈkuɾsos]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

censos is recorded at frequency rank #22,298, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈsẽnsos]. cursos is at rank #2,875, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkuɾsos].

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 25173, this pair ranks #237,654 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of censos vs cursos

Shared letters: cos. Private to "censos": en. Private to "cursos": ru.

"censos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cursos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • censosccensos · cennsos · cenoss · censoss · censsos · cesnos · cnesos · ecnsos
  • cursosccursos · crusos · cuross · currsos · cursoss · curssos · cusros · ucrsos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "censos" and "cursos" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈsẽnsos] versus [ˈkuɾsos]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "censos" or "cursos"?
"cursos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,875 in our Spanish list, against #22,298 for "censos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "censos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cursos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #237,654 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "censos" and "cursos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "censal vs censos". 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 #237,654 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list