censévscheeseConfusable pair

Quick tell: censé is a adjective, cheese is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“censé” is an adjective and “cheese” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,595
“censé” frequency rank
#22,793
“cheese” frequency rank
26388
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature censé cheese
Definition Supposé, réputé, considéré (comme). Fromage (produit laitier).

Where the eye mixes censé and cheese

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
censé
6 ch
cheese

Visual trap between censé and cheese

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: censé is \sɑ̃.se\ while cheese is \tʃiːz\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26388, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

censé is recorded at frequency rank #3,595, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.se\. cheese is at rank #22,793, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʃiːz\.

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 26388, this pair ranks #335,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of censé vs cheese

Shared letters: ces. Private to "censé": . Private to "cheese": h.

"censé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cheese" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cheeseccheese · cehese · cheees · cheesse · chese · chesee · chheese · hceese

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "censé" and "cheese" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "censé" is an adjective and "cheese" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "censé" or "cheese"?
"censé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,595 in our French list, against #22,793 for "cheese". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "censé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cheese" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #335,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "censé" and "cheese" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs cheese". 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 #335,302 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