Which to use
“clamps” and “cramp” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,400
- “clamps” frequency rank
- #27,418
- “cramp” frequency rank
- 54818
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clamps | cramp |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of clamp | A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled; (sometimes) a similar pain even without noticeable contraction. |
Where the eye mixes clamps and cramp
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. clamps runs 6 letters (CCVCCC) against cramp's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: clamps vs cramp
A purely visual mix-up. clamps (/klæmps/) and cramp (/kɹæmp/) 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 54818, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clamps is recorded at frequency rank #27,400, classified as anoun, pronounced /klæmps/. cramp is at rank #27,418, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹæmp/.
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 54818, this pair ranks #138,244 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clamps vs cramp
Shared letters: acmp. Private to "clamps": ls. Private to "cramp": r.
"clamps" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "cramp" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clamps" and "cramp" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "clamps" or "cramp"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "clamps" and "cramp" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "clamps" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cramp" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #138,244 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clamps" and "cramp" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Crabb vs cramp". 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 #138,244 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.