cigvsCLCWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cig is a noun, CLC is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cig” is a noun and “CLC” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,828
“cig” frequency rank
#44,694
“CLC” frequency rank
79522
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cig CLC
Definition Cigarette. Initialism of Campaign Legal Center.

Letter map: cig vs CLC

Shared letters muted; letters that set cig and CLC apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
cig
3 ch
CLC

Role in the sentence - cig and CLC

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cig is anoun and CLCaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cig is recorded at frequency rank #34,828, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɪɡ/. CLC is at rank #44,694, tagged as aname.

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 79522, this pair ranks #21,868 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cig vs CLC

Shared letters: c. Private to "cig": gi. Private to "CLC": l.

"cig" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "CLC" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cig" for "CLC" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cig" is a noun and "CLC" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "cig" or "CLC" show up more?
"cig" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,828 in our English list, against #44,694 for "CLC". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "cig" and "CLC". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cig" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CLC" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,868 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cig" and "CLC" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CGT vs CLC". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #21,868 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list