censuses

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of census.

   Historians compared the 1900 and 1910 censuses to see how the neighborhood had changed.

   Volunteers carry out annual bird censuses along the coast.

   Note

   One spelling serves two words: these censuses are the noun's plural, while a ranger who censuses the deer is using the verb's third-person form. The plural stretches across everything the singular can count, from official population counts to plain tallies and the feudal levy that once bore the name; what comes before settles which you are reading.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of census.

   The wildlife agency censuses the elk herd from the air each winter.

   The county censuses its residents every ten years, going door to door.

   Note

   Like the verb itself, this form works two ways. Usually it takes an object, the group being counted, as when an agency censuses every household. It can also stand alone when the counting itself is the point, as in a town that censuses once a decade.

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