English homophones

clan/Klan

"clan" is a noun; "Klan" is a name - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "clan" arrives as a noun, while "Klan" is a name. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

No shared spelling stem: "clan" is 4 letters, "Klan" is 4; only the sound ties them.

Shared letters across clan, Klan: aln. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

Write "clan" when you mean: A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known.
Write "Klan" when you mean: Ku Klux Klan

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

noun · /klæn/ · #7,429 frequency

A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known.

name · /klæn/ · #23,020 frequency

Ku Klux Klan

What to do next

You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (clan, Klan). Here's where to go from here.

"clan" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #7,429 in English). Full entry
Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: court · caught. Nearby cluster
Grammar often disambiguates this cluster, match the meaning to the part of speech before picking a spelling. Pick by meaning

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.