clairvsclassWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#48,806
“clair” frequency rank
#11,026
“class” frequency rank
59832
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clair class
Definition hell, anschaulich, bestimmt, deutlich, klar, licht, lichtvoll Klasse

Letter map: clair vs class

Shared letters muted; letters that set clair and class apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
clair
5 ch
class

Part-of-speech tell for clair / class

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: clair is anadjective and classanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59832, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clair is recorded at frequency rank #48,806, classified as anadj, pronounced [klɛʁ]. class is at rank #11,026, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 59832, this pair ranks #809,653 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clair vs class

Shared letters: acl. Private to "clair": ir. Private to "class": s.

"clair" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "class" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • claircalir · cclair · clairr · clari · cliar · cllair · lcair
  • classcalss · cclass · clas · claß · cllass · clsas · lcass

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clair" for "class" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "clair" is an adjective and "class" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "clair" vs "class" - which ranks higher?
"class" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,026 in our German list, against #48,806 for "clair". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "clair" and "class". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "class" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #809,653 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clair" and "class" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carr vs clair". 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 #809,653 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