Which to use
“censées” and “sensée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,384
- “censées” frequency rank
- #21,769
- “sensée” frequency rank
- 42153
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | censées | sensée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de censé. | Féminin singulier de sensé. |
Same sound, different letters: censées vs sensée
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. censées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against sensée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - censées and sensée
This is the hard kind. censées and sensée 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 42153, 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\. sensée is at rank #21,769, 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 42153, this pair ranks #227,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of censées vs sensée
Shared letters: ensé. Private to "censées": c. Private to "sensée": -.
"censées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "sensée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "censées" and "sensée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "censées" or "sensée"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "censées" / "sensée". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "censées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sensée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #227,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "censées" and "sensée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semée vs sensée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #227,811 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.