English homophones
clause/claws
"clause" (#7,205 written frequency) beats "claws" (#13,683) in this 2-word /klɔːz/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /klɔːz/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "clause" leads at #7,205, with "claws" trailing at #13,683.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "cla" then splits - "clause" (6 letters) vs "claws" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across clause, claws: acls. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
clause
6 letters · 3 vowels · shape CCVVCV
Inventory acelsu · private eu
claws
5 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCVCC
Inventory aclsw · private w
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "clause" when you mean: A group of words that contains a subject and a verb; it may be part of a sentence or may constitute the whole sentence, depending on the …
- Write "claws" when you mean: plural of claw
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (clause, claws). Here's where to go from here.
- "clause" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #7,205 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: Chris · Cris. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "clause, claws" has its own headword page with definition, IPA, and misspelling variants. First entry
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.