censvsCérèsConfusable pair

Quick tell: cens is a noun, Cérès is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cens” is a noun and “Cérès” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,698
“cens” frequency rank
#39,738
“Cérès” frequency rank
79436
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cens Cérès
Definition Redevance de toute nature que certains biens devaient annuellement au seigneur du fief dont ils relevaient. Déesse romaine de l’agriculture, des moissons et de la fécondité ; fille de Saturne.

Where the eye mixes cens and Cérès

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cens runs 4 letters (CVCC) against Cérès's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
cens
5 ch
Cérès

Look-alike desk: cens vs Cérès

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cens is \sɑ̃s\ while Cérès is \se.ʁɛs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79436, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cens is recorded at frequency rank #39,698, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɑ̃s\. Cérès is at rank #39,738, tagged as aname, pronounced \se.ʁɛs\.

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 79436, this pair ranks #23,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cens vs Cérès

Shared letters: cs. Private to "cens": en. Private to "Cérès": rèé.

"cens" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Cérès" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cens ← ccens · cenns · censs · cesn · ecns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cens" for "Cérès" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cens" is a noun and "Cérès" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "cens" or "Cérès" show up more?
"cens" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,698 in our French list, against #39,738 for "Cérès". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cens" and "Cérès" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cérès" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cens" and "Cérès" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs Cérès". 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 #23,269 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list