censurevscensuréeConfusable pair

Quick tell: censure is a noun, censurée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“censure” is a noun and “censurée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,218
“censure” frequency rank
#29,687
“censurée” frequency rank
34905
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature censure censurée
Definition Examen qu’un gouvernement fait faire des livres, des journaux, des pièces de théâtre, etc., avant d’en permettre la publication ou la représentation. Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe censurer.

Where the eye mixes censure and censurée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
censure
8 ch
censurée

Look-alike desk: censure vs censurée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: censure is \sɑ̃.syʁ\ while censurée is \sɑ̃.sy.ʁe\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34905, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

censure is recorded at frequency rank #5,218, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɑ̃.syʁ\. censurée is at rank #29,687, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɑ̃.sy.ʁe\.

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 34905, this pair ranks #280,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of censure vs censurée

Shared letters: cenrsu. Private to "censure": -. Private to "censurée": é.

"censure" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "censurée" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • censureccensure · cennsure · censrue · censsure · censuer · censurre · cenusre · cesnure

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "censure" and "censurée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "censure" is a noun and "censurée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "censure" or "censurée"?
"censure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,218 in our French list, against #29,687 for "censurée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "censure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "censurée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #280,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "censure" and "censurée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "censurée vs Césarée". 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 #280,558 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