clawvsCloConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#13,116
“claw” frequency rank
#48,144
“Clo” frequency rank
61260
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature claw Clo
Definition A curved, pointed, horny projection on each digit of the foot of a mammal, reptile, or bird. Abbreviation of close (in street addresses).

Letter map: claw vs Clo

Shared letters muted; letters that set claw and Clo apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
claw
3 ch
Clo

Spelling & dictionary notes on claw vs Clo

claw and Clo are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61260, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

claw is recorded at frequency rank #13,116, classified as anoun, pronounced /klɔ/. Clo is at rank #48,144, 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 61260, this pair ranks #95,263 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of claw vs Clo

Shared letters: cl. Private to "claw": aw. Private to "Clo": o.

"claw" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Clo" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clawcalw · cclaw · claww · cllaw · clwa · lcaw

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "claw" for "Clo" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "claw" vs "Clo" - which ranks higher?
"claw" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,116 in our English list, against #48,144 for "Clo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "claw" vs "Clo" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "claw" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Clo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #95,263 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "claw" and "Clo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CGT vs Clo". 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 #95,263 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