Which to use
“cleans” and “clears” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,161
- “cleans” frequency rank
- #13,685
- “clears” frequency rank
- 34846
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cleans | clears |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of clean | A relatively strong, coarse flour that has only been sifted once. |
Letter map: cleans vs clears
Shared letters muted; letters that set cleans and clears apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. cleans and clears follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Spelling & dictionary notes on cleans vs clears
cleans and clears 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 a single letter - n in “cleans” becomes r in “clears”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34846, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cleans is recorded at frequency rank #21,161, classified as anoun, pronounced /kliːnz/. clears is at rank #13,685, 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 34846, this pair ranks #317,134 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cleans vs clears
Shared letters: acels. Private to "cleans": n. Private to "clears": r.
"cleans" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "clears" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cleans" and "clears" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cleans" or "clears"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "cleans" and "clears". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "cleans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clears" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #317,134 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cleans" and "clears" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clang vs cleans". 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 #317,134 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.