Which to use
“Clair” is a name and “claire” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,062
- “Clair” frequency rank
- #7,320
- “claire” frequency rank
- 27382
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Clair | claire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A female given name from French. | A small enclosed pond used for gathering and greening oysters. |
Letter map: Clair vs claire
Shared letters muted; letters that set Clair and claire apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for Clair / claire
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Clair is aname and claireanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Clair” sits inside “claire”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27382, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Clair is recorded at frequency rank #20,062, classified as aname. claire is at rank #7,320, tagged as anoun.
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 27382, this pair ranks #379,379 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Clair vs claire
Shared letters: acilr. Private to "Clair": -. Private to "claire": e.
"Clair" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "claire" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Clair" for "claire" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Clair" vs "claire" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "Clair" vs "claire" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "Clair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "claire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #379,379 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Clair" and "claire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Chaim vs Clair". 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 #379,379 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.