clearedvscreamedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,111
“cleared” frequency rank
#40,635
“creamed” frequency rank
45746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cleared creamed
Definition simple past and past participle of clear simple past and past participle of cream

Where the eye mixes cleared and creamed

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
cleared
7 ch
creamed

Look-alike desk: cleared vs creamed

A purely visual mix-up. cleared (/klɪɹd/) and creamed (/kɹiːmd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45746, 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/. creamed is at rank #40,635, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɹiːmd/.

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 45746, this pair ranks #218,325 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cleared vs creamed

Shared letters: acder. Private to "cleared": l. Private to "creamed": m.

"cleared" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "creamed" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clearedccleared · celared · claered · cleaerd · clearde · clearedd · clearred · cleraed
  • creamedccreamed · ceramed · craemed · creaemd · creamde · creamedd · creammed · cremaed

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cleared" and "creamed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/klɪɹd/ versus /kɹiːmd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cleared" or "creamed"?
"cleared" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,111 in our English list, against #40,635 for "creamed". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cleared" and "creamed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cleared" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "creamed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,325 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cleared" and "creamed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "creamed vs crewed". 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 #218,325 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