Which to use
“cedar” is a noun and “clear” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,178
- “cedar” frequency rank
- #558
- “clear” frequency rank
- 10736
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cedar | clear |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A coniferous tree of the genus Cedrus in the family Pinaceae. | Transparent in colour. |
Where the eye mixes cedar and clear
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cedar and clear
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cedar is /ˈsiː.də/ while clear is /klɪə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cedar is recorded at frequency rank #10,178, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsiː.də/. clear is at rank #558, tagged as anadj, pronounced /klɪə/.
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 10736, this pair ranks #490,790 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cedar vs clear
Shared letters: acer. Private to "cedar": d. Private to "clear": l.
"cedar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "clear" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cedar" for "clear" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cedar" or "clear"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cedar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #490,790 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cedar" and "clear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CEA vs cedar". 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 #490,790 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.