Which to use
“censées” and “censés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,384
- “censées” frequency rank
- #10,654
- “censés” frequency rank
- 31038
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | censées | censés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de censé. | Masculin pluriel de censé. |
Same sound, different letters: censées vs censés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. censées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against censés's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: censées vs censés
This is the hard kind. censées and censés 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
censées is recorded at frequency rank #20,384, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.se\. censés is at rank #10,654, 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 31038, this pair ranks #306,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of censées vs censés
Shared letters: censé. Private to "censées": -. Private to "censés": -.
"censées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "censés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "censées" for "censés" ever safe?
Frequency check: "censées" vs "censés" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "censées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "censés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #306,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "censées" and "censés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "censées vs centers". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #306,394 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.