Which to use
“center” and “century” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,539
- “center” frequency rank
- #16,316
- “century” frequency rank
- 23855
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | center | century |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Centre. | Siècle (période de cent ans) |
Where the eye mixes center and century
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. center runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against century's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses center with century
A purely visual mix-up. center (\ˈsɛn.ɚ\) and century (\ˈsɛn.tʃə.ɹi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23855, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
center is recorded at frequency rank #7,539, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈsɛn.ɚ\. century is at rank #16,316, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈsɛn.tʃə.ɹi\.
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 23855, this pair ranks #350,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of center vs century
Shared letters: cenrt. Private to "center": -. Private to "century": uy.
"center" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "century" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "center" for "century" ever safe?
Frequency check: "center" vs "century" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "center" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "century" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #350,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "center" and "century" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "centers vs century". 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 #350,061 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.