Which to use
“censées” is an adjective and “censeurs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,384
- “censées” frequency rank
- #38,194
- “censeurs” frequency rank
- 58578
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | censées | censeurs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de censé. | Pluriel de censeur. |
Where the eye mixes censées and censeurs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. censées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against censeurs's 8 (CVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between censées and censeurs
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: censées is \sɑ̃.se\ while censeurs is \sɑ̃.sœʁ\. 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 58578, 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\. censeurs is at rank #38,194, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɑ̃.sœʁ\.
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 58578, this pair ranks #108,240 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of censées vs censeurs
Shared letters: cens. Private to "censées": é. Private to "censeurs": ru.
"censées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "censeurs" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- censeurs ← ccenseurs · cenesurs · cennseurs · censerus · censeurrs · censeurss · censeusr · censseurs
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "censées" for "censeurs" ever safe?
Which is more common, "censées" or "censeurs"?
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 "censées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "censeurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #108,240 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "censées" and "censeurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "censeurs vs centers". 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 #108,240 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.