Which to use
“claim” and “clan” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,181
- “claim” frequency rank
- #7,429
- “clan” frequency rank
- 8610
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | claim | clan |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A demand of ownership made for something. | A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known. |
Where the eye mixes claim and clan
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses claim with clan
A purely visual mix-up. claim (/kleɪm/) and clan (/klæn/) 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 8610, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
claim is recorded at frequency rank #1,181, classified as anoun, pronounced /kleɪm/. clan is at rank #7,429, tagged as anoun, pronounced /klæn/.
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 8610, this pair ranks #501,644 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of claim vs clan
Shared letters: acl. Private to "claim": im. Private to "clan": n.
"claim" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "clan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "claim" and "clan" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "claim" or "clan" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "claim" and "clan" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "claim" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #501,644 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "claim" and "clan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caw vs clan". 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 #501,644 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.