recensementvsrecensementsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,608
“recensement” frequency rank
#32,977
“recensements” frequency rank
41585
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recensement recensements
Definition Dénombrement ou inventaire de personnes, d’effets, de suffrages, etc. Pluriel de recensement.

Same sound, different letters: recensement vs recensements

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 11 letters. recensement runs 11 letters (CVCVCCVCVCC) against recensements's 12 (CVCVCCVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
recensement
12 ch
recensements

Same sound, different spelling - recensement / recensements

This is the hard kind. recensement and recensements are pronounced identically (\ʁə.sɑ̃s.mɑ̃\) and both work as anoun. 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 extra letter(s) - “recensement” sits inside “recensements”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recensement is recorded at frequency rank #8,608, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.sɑ̃s.mɑ̃\. recensements is at rank #32,977, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.sɑ̃s.mɑ̃\.

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 41585, this pair ranks #232,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of recensement vs recensements

Shared letters: cemnrst. Private to "recensement": -. Private to "recensements": -.

"recensement" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVCC  ·  "recensements" · 12 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recensement ← ercensement · rceensement · reccensement · recenesment · recennsement · recenseemnt · recensemennt · recensementt
  • recensements ← ercensements · rceensements · reccensements · recenesments · recennsements · recenseemnts · recensemennts · recensemenst

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "recensement" and "recensements" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁə.sɑ̃s.mɑ̃\), 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, "recensement" or "recensements"?
"recensement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,608 in our French list, against #32,977 for "recensements". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"recensement" and "recensements" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "recensement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recensements" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #232,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • 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 #232,027 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