Which to use
“cause” and “clause” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #441
- “cause” frequency rank
- #7,205
- “clause” frequency rank
- 7646
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cause | clause |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result. | 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 syntax in each instance. |
Where the eye mixes cause and clause
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cause vs clause
A purely visual mix-up. cause (/kɔːz/) and clause (/klɔːz/) 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 7646, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cause is recorded at frequency rank #441, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɔːz/. clause is at rank #7,205, tagged as anoun, pronounced /klɔːz/.
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 7646, this pair ranks #506,220 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cause vs clause
Shared letters: acesu. Private to "cause": -. Private to "clause": l.
"cause" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "clause" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cause" for "clause" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cause" vs "clause" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cause" and "clause" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cause" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clause" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #506,220 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cause" and "clause" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaise vs clause". 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 #506,220 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.