censovscursoConfusable pair

Which to use

“censo” and “curso” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,830
“censo” frequency rank
#847
“curso” frequency rank
6677
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature censo curso
Definition pesquisa que visa a coleta de dados estatísticos de um determinado lugar conjunto de disciplinas onde alunos se matriculam para aprender um determinado tema

Where the eye mixes censo and curso

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
censo
5 ch
curso

Visual trap between censo and curso

A purely visual mix-up. censo (/ˈsẽ.su/) and curso (/ˈkuɾ.su/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6677, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

censo is recorded at frequency rank #5,830, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsẽ.su/. curso is at rank #847, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkuɾ.su/.

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 6677, this pair ranks #67,709 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of censo vs curso

Shared letters: cos. Private to "censo": en. Private to "curso": ru.

"censo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "curso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • censoccenso · cennso · cenos · censso · cesno · cneso · ecnso
  • cursoccurso · cruso · curos · currso · cursso · cusro · ucrso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "censo" for "curso" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsẽ.su/ versus /ˈkuɾ.su/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "censo" vs "curso" - which ranks higher?
"curso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #847 in our Portuguese list, against #5,830 for "censo". 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 "censo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "curso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,709 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "censo" and "curso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "censo vs césio". 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 #67,709 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list