censésvscenseurConfusable pair

Quick tell: censés is a adjective, censeur is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“censés” is an adjective and “censeur” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,654
“censés” frequency rank
#39,203
“censeur” frequency rank
49857
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature censés censeur
Definition Masculin pluriel de censé. Magistrat romain chargé d’établir le cens, c’est-à-dire le recensement des citoyens, le contrôle de l’état de leur fortune, et la légitimité de leur appartenance à telle ou telle classe (sénatoriale ou équestre).

Where the eye mixes censés and censeur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
censés
7 ch
censeur

Visual trap between censés and censeur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: censés is \sɑ̃.se\ while censeur 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 49857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

censés is recorded at frequency rank #10,654, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.se\. censeur is at rank #39,203, 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 49857, this pair ranks #167,338 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of censés vs censeur

Shared letters: cens. Private to "censés": é. Private to "censeur": ru.

"censés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "censeur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • censeurccenseur · cenesur · cennseur · censeru · censeurr · censseur · cesneur · cneseur

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "censés" and "censeur" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "censés" is an adjective and "censeur" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "censés" vs "censeur" - which ranks higher?
"censés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,654 in our French list, against #39,203 for "censeur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "censés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "censeur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #167,338 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "censés" and "censeur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casseur vs censeur". 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 #167,338 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