censévscloseConfusable pair

Which to use

“censé” and “close” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,595
“censé” frequency rank
#10,842
“close” frequency rank
14437
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature censé close
Definition Supposé, réputé, considéré (comme). Féminin singulier de clos.

Where the eye mixes censé and close

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
censé
5 ch
close

Look-alike desk: censé vs close

A purely visual mix-up. censé (\sɑ̃.se\) and close (\kloz\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14437, 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\. close is at rank #10,842, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kloz\.

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 14437, this pair ranks #396,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of censé vs close

Shared letters: ces. Private to "censé": . Private to "close": lo.

"censé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "close" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • closecclose · cllose · cloes · closse · clsoe · colse · lcose

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "censé" and "close" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\sɑ̃.se\ versus \kloz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "censé" or "close"?
"censé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,595 in our French list, against #10,842 for "close". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "censé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "close" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "censé" and "close" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs close". 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 #396,657 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