Which to use
“clears” and “cleary” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,685
- “clears” frequency rank
- #30,734
- “cleary” frequency rank
- 44419
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clears | cleary |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A relatively strong, coarse flour that has only been sifted once. | A clear marble (sphere used in games), usually colored, but without decoration or design. |
Letter map: clears vs cleary
Shared letters muted; letters that set clears and cleary apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Corpus notes: clears and cleary
clears and cleary 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 - s in “clears” becomes y in “cleary”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44419, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clears is recorded at frequency rank #13,685, classified as anoun. 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 44419, this pair ranks #230,733 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clears vs cleary
Shared letters: acelr. Private to "clears": s. Private to "cleary": y.
"clears" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "cleary" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clears" for "cleary" ever safe?
Frequency check: "clears" vs "cleary" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "clears" and "cleary".
- Full dictionary entry for "clears" 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 #230,733 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clears" 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 #230,733 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.