Which to use
“censée” and “sensés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,511
- “censée” frequency rank
- #31,255
- “sensés” frequency rank
- 39766
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | censée | sensés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de censé. | Masculin pluriel de sensé. |
Same sound, different letters: censée vs sensés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. censée (CVCCVV) and sensés (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Homophone desk: censée vs sensés
This is the hard kind. censée and sensés are pronounced identically (\sɑ̃.se\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39766, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
censée is recorded at frequency rank #8,511, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.se\. sensés is at rank #31,255, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.se\.
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 39766, this pair ranks #245,548 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of censée vs sensés
Shared letters: ensé. Private to "censée": c. Private to "sensés": -.
"censée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "sensés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "censée" and "sensés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "censée" vs "sensés" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "censée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sensés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #245,548 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "censée" and "sensés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semés vs sensés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #245,548 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.