cacvsclackWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“cac” and “clack” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#33,969
“cac” frequency rank
#46,381
“clack” frequency rank
80350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cac clack
Definition A white (Caucasian) person. An abrupt, sharp sound, especially one made by two hard objects colliding repetitively; a sound midway between a click and a clunk.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cac and clack apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
cac
5 ch
clack

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cac (/kæk/) and clack (/klæk/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cac is recorded at frequency rank #33,969, classified as anoun, pronounced /kæk/. clack is at rank #46,381, tagged as anoun, pronounced /klæk/.

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 80350, this pair ranks #20,001 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cac vs clack

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cac": -. Private to "clack": kl.

"cac" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "clack" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clackcalck · cclack · clacck · clackk · clakc · clcak · cllack · lcack

Frequency comparison

cac#33,969
clack#46,381

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cac" and "clack" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kæk/ versus /klæk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cac" or "clack"?
"cac" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,969 in our English list, against #46,381 for "clack". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cac vs clack

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cac” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list