census

noun

The verdict

“census” is uncommon French (frequency #59,872 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#59,872
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Estimation, évaluation, cens quinquennal qui permet de fixer l'assiette fiscale des citoyens romains.

Corpus desk

Index FR-census · census · French

census · rank #59,872 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #59,872
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH Caterina

Nearest frequency peer: Caterina (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « census »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « census » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for census
PropertyValue
Headwordcensus
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
Letters6
Frequency rank#59,872
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « census » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).censustombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Caterina » (#59,871), « Cernay » (#59,873), « casi » (#59,870). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « census » est au #59,872. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

census is uncommon French at frequency #59,872 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for census, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is census, spelled C-E-N-S-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Estimation, évaluation, cens quinquennal qui permet de fixer l'assiette fiscale des citoyens romains.
  2. 2
    Registres où sont consignées ces estimations.
  3. 3
    Richesse, biens, fortune, avoirs.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how census appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. census agere.
  2. Pontifices, augures Romulo regnante nulli erant; ab Numa Pompilio creati sunt. Census in civitate et discriptio centuriarum classiumque non erat; ab Ser. Tullio est facta.

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "census"?
"census" is spelled C-E-N-S-U-S.
What does "census" mean?
As a noun, "census" means: Estimation, évaluation, cens quinquennal qui permet de fixer l'assiette fiscale des citoyens romains.
What language does "census" come from?
"census" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "census", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list