Senses vs census

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Grammarist

Senses and census are two words that are extremely close in pronunciation and may be considered confusables. We will examine the different meanings of the confusables senses and census, the word origins of the terms, and some examples of their English usage in sentences.

Senses means 1.) the bodily faculties that gathers information from the environment and relay it to the brain, 2.) the ability to understand information through one of these faculties, 3.) the feelings understood through one of these faculties, 4.) understanding or awareness, 5.) sound judgement, 6.) reason, purpose, meaning. Senses may be used as a plural noun or a verb, related words are sense, sensed, sensing, senseless, senselessly. Senses appears in the fourteenth century from the Latin word sēnsus. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, sense is one of the top one thousand frequently used words.

A census is an official count of a population. In the United States and Great Britain, the national census is taken every ten years, which is a decennial census. Census counts began as a way to assess taxes or to gauge how many able-bodied men were available to fight in wars. Today, the enumeration of census figures are used to calculate population growth, number of households, demographics pertaining to economic income and race, and to inform how resources will be distributed and how political power will be allocated. The United States Census is a federal census and is conducted by The United State Census Bureau, which is part of the Department of Commerce. Census information may be considered a community survey; historical census data may be accessed by the public and is valuable to genealogists. The word census is derived from the Latin censere, which means to assess.

Examples

Come join us and stimulate your senses with homemade paintings by Lynne and aromatherapy products like soaps, body butters, sprays and scrubs by me! (The Cranston Herald)

“From mere screen-based connectivity, we could see the virtual office become a fully immersive experience with all the senses involved,” says Michael Bjorn, Head of Research Agenda, Ericsson Consumer & Industry Lab. (The Hindu Business Line)

The U.S. Census Bureau was able to claim it had reached 99.9% of households when the 2020 census ended two weeks ago because census takers were pressured to falsify data as the statistical agency cut corners and slashed standards, according to an amended lawsuit from advocacy groups and local governments. (AP News)

On November 1st 7m functionaries will begin carrying out the country’s ten-yearly census, a task that will take them until December 10th. (The Economist)