Which to use
“close” and “clou” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,880
- “close” frequency rank
- #39,272
- “clou” frequency rank
- 60152
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | close | clou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | die Sackgasse | Nagel |
Where the eye mixes close and clou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses close with clou
A purely visual mix-up. close ([kləʊz]) and clou ([klu]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60152, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
close is recorded at frequency rank #20,880, classified as anoun, pronounced [kləʊz]. clou is at rank #39,272, tagged as anoun, pronounced [klu].
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 60152, this pair ranks #797,573 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of close vs clou
Shared letters: clo. Private to "close": es. Private to "clou": u.
"close" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "clou" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "close" and "clou" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "close" or "clou" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "close" and "clou" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "close" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #797,573 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "close" and "clou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clock vs clou". 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 #797,573 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.