claravsclearWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#9,874
“clara” frequency rank
#27,240
“clear” frequency rank
37114
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clara clear
Definition das Eiklar, das Eiweiß, die weiße (äußere) Flüssigkeit des Eis klar

Where the eye mixes clara and clear

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
clara
5 ch
clear

Visual trap between clara and clear

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clara is [ˈkɫaɾə] while clear is [klɪə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clara is recorded at frequency rank #9,874, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkɫaɾə]. clear is at rank #27,240, tagged as anadj, pronounced [klɪə].

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 37114, this pair ranks #1,598,481 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of clara vs clear

Shared letters: aclr. Private to "clara": -. Private to "clear": e.

"clara" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "clear" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • claracalra · cclara · claar · clarra · cllara · clraa · lcara
  • clearcclear · celar · claer · clearr · clera · cllear · lcear

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clara" for "clear" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "clara" is a noun and "clear" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "clara" or "clear" show up more?
"clara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,874 in our German list, against #27,240 for "clear". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "clara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,598,481 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clara" and "clear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clair vs clear". 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 #1,598,481 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