census
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A periodic count of the population.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sehnsuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɛnsəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A periodic count of the population
An official count or enumeration of members of a population (not necessarily human), usually residents or citizens in a particular region, often done at regular intervals.
Count, tally.
verb
transitive
To conduct a census on.
“They censused the deer in the forest.”
intransitive
To collect a census.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A periodic count of the population
Used this way, census is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The bureau of the Commerce Department responsible for taking the census.
Someone who collects census data by visiting individual homes.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.