ClarevsClaudeConfusable pair

Which to use

“Clare” and “Claude” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,020
“Clare” frequency rank
#10,180
“Claude” frequency rank
22200
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Clare Claude
Definition A county of Ireland. A male given name from Latin.

Where the eye mixes Clare and Claude

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Clare
6 ch
Claude

Why the eye confuses Clare with Claude

A purely visual mix-up. Clare (/klɛə/) and Claude (/klɔːd/) 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 22200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Clare is recorded at frequency rank #12,020, classified as aname, pronounced /klɛə/. Claude is at rank #10,180, tagged as aname, pronounced /klɔːd/.

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 22200, this pair ranks #418,315 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Clare vs Claude

Shared letters: acel. Private to "Clare": r. Private to "Claude": du.

"Clare" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Claude" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Clarecalre · cclare · clarre · cllare · clrae · lcare
  • Claudecalude · cclaude · cladue · claudde · claued · cllaude · cluade · lcaude

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Clare" and "Claude" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/klɛə/ versus /klɔːd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Clare" vs "Claude" - which ranks higher?
"Claude" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,180 in our English list, against #12,020 for "Clare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Clare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Claude" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,315 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Clare" and "Claude" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Clare vs cleve". 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 #418,315 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