censévsconsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,595
“censé” frequency rank
#3,243
“cons” frequency rank
6838
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature censé cons
Definition Supposé, réputé, considéré (comme). Masculin pluriel de con.

Where the eye mixes censé and cons

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

5 ch
censé
4 ch
cons

Why the eye confuses censé with cons

A purely visual mix-up. censé (\sɑ̃.se\) and cons (\kɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6838, 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\. cons is at rank #3,243, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃\.

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 6838, this pair ranks #425,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of censé vs cons

Shared letters: cns. Private to "censé": . Private to "cons": o.

"censé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • consccons · cnos · conns · conss · cosn · ocns

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "censé" and "cons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\sɑ̃.se\ versus \kɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "censé" vs "cons" - which ranks higher?
"cons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,243 in our French list, against #3,595 for "censé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "censé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "censé" and "cons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "censé vs conde". 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 #425,066 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