Which to use
“Claude” is a name and “clause” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,180
- “Claude” frequency rank
- #7,205
- “clause” frequency rank
- 17385
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Claude | clause |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A male given name from Latin. | A group of words that contains a subject and a verb; it may be part of a sentence or may constitute the whole sentence, depending on the syntax in each instance. |
Where the eye mixes Claude and clause
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Claude with clause
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Claude is /klɔːd/ while clause is /klɔːz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “Claude” becomes s in “clause”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Claude is recorded at frequency rank #10,180, classified as aname, pronounced /klɔːd/. clause is at rank #7,205, tagged as anoun, pronounced /klɔːz/.
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 17385, this pair ranks #451,757 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Claude vs clause
Shared letters: acelu. Private to "Claude": d. Private to "clause": s.
"Claude" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "clause" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Claude" and "clause" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "Claude" or "clause" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "Claude" and "clause" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Claude" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clause" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #451,757 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Claude" and "clause" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaise vs clause". 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 #451,757 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.