carrvsclairTell them apart

Quick tell: carr is a noun, clair is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“carr” is a noun and “clair” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,550
“carr” frequency rank
#48,806
“clair” frequency rank
98356
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carr clair
Definition Auto hell, anschaulich, bestimmt, deutlich, klar, licht, lichtvoll

Where the eye mixes carr and clair

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

4 ch
carr
5 ch
clair

Why the eye confuses carr with clair

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: carr is [kaːr] while clair is [klɛʁ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 98356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carr is recorded at frequency rank #49,550, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaːr]. clair is at rank #48,806, tagged as anadj, pronounced [klɛʁ].

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 98356, this pair ranks #1,562 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of carr vs clair

Shared letters: acr. Private to "carr": -. Private to "clair": il.

"carr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "clair" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carracrr · ccarr · crar
  • claircalir · cclair · clairr · clari · cliar · cllair · lcair

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carr" and "clair" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carr" is a noun and "clair" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "carr" or "clair" show up more?
"clair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #48,806 in our German list, against #49,550 for "carr". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "carr" and "clair" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "carr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clair" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,562 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carr" and "clair" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cali vs carr". 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 #1,562 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list