censésvssenséeTell them apart

Which to use

“censés” and “sensée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,654
“censés” frequency rank
#21,769
“sensée” frequency rank
32423
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature censés sensée
Definition Masculin pluriel de censé. Féminin singulier de sensé.

Same sound, different letters: censés vs sensée

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. censés (CVCCVC) and sensée (CVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
censés
6 ch
sensée

Ear matches; page differs - censés and sensée

This is the hard kind. censés 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32423, 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\. 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 32423, this pair ranks #297,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of censés vs sensée

Shared letters: ensé. Private to "censés": c. Private to "sensée": -.

"censés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sensée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "censés" for "sensée" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\sɑ̃.se\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "censés" or "sensée"?
"censés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,654 in our French list, against #21,769 for "sensée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "censés" 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 #297,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "censés" and "sensée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semée vs sensée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #297,396 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