clearedvsclearyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cleared is a verb, cleary is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cleared” is a verb and “cleary” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,111
“cleared” frequency rank
#30,734
“cleary” frequency rank
35845
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cleared cleary
Definition simple past and past participle of clear A clear marble (sphere used in games), usually colored, but without decoration or design.

Letter map: cleared vs cleary

Shared letters muted; letters that set cleared and cleary apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
cleared
6 ch
cleary

Part-of-speech tell for cleared / cleary

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cleared is averb and clearyanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35845, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cleared is recorded at frequency rank #5,111, classified as averb, pronounced /klɪɹd/. cleary is at rank #30,734, 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 35845, this pair ranks #308,423 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cleared vs cleary

Shared letters: acelr. Private to "cleared": d. Private to "cleary": y.

"cleared" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "cleary" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clearedccleared · celared · claered · cleaerd · clearde · clearedd · clearred · cleraed
  • clearyccleary · celary · claery · clearry · clearyy · cleayr · cleray · clleary

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cleared" and "cleary" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cleared" is a verb and "cleary" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cleared" vs "cleary" - which ranks higher?
"cleared" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,111 in our English list, against #30,734 for "cleary". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "cleared" vs "cleary" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cleared" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cleary" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #308,423 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cleared" and "cleary" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clary vs cleary". 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 #308,423 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