clouvscrowWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“clou” and “crow” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#39,272
“clou” frequency rank
#36,863
“crow” frequency rank
76135
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clou crow
Definition Nagel Vogel; Krähe

Letter map: clou vs crow

Shared letters muted; letters that set clou and crow apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
clou
4 ch
crow

Pair insight - clou / crow

clou and crow are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76135, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clou is recorded at frequency rank #39,272, classified as anoun, pronounced [klu]. crow is at rank #36,863, 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 76135, this pair ranks #290,931 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of clou vs crow

Shared letters: co. Private to "clou": lu. Private to "crow": rw.

"clou" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "crow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cloucclou · cllou · cluo · colu · lcou
  • crowccrow · corw · croww · crrow · crwo · rcow

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clou" for "crow" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "clou" or "crow"?
"crow" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,863 in our German list, against #39,272 for "clou". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "clou" vs "crow" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #290,931 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clou" and "crow" 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 #290,931 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