cleavedvscleveConfusable pair

Quick tell: cleaved is a adjective, cleve is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cleaved” is an adjective and “cleve” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,255
“cleaved” frequency rank
#47,535
“cleve” frequency rank
96790
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cleaved cleve
Definition Cleft or cloven. A room; chamber.

Letter map: cleaved vs cleve

Shared letters muted; letters that set cleaved and cleve apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
cleaved
5 ch
cleve

Grammar separator: cleaved vs cleve

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cleaved is anadjective and cleveanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 96790, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cleaved is recorded at frequency rank #49,255, classified as anadj, pronounced /kliːvd/. cleve is at rank #47,535, 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 96790, this pair ranks #469 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cleaved vs cleve

Shared letters: celv. Private to "cleaved": ad. Private to "cleve": -.

"cleaved" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "cleve" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cleavedccleaved · celaved · claeved · cleaevd · cleavde · cleavedd · cleavved · clevaed
  • cleveccleve · celve · cleev · clevve · clleve · clvee · lceve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cleaved" for "cleve" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cleaved" is an adjective and "cleve" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cleaved" or "cleve"?
"cleve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47,535 in our English list, against #49,255 for "cleaved". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "cleaved" vs "cleve" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cleaved" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cleve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #469 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cleaved" and "cleve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cleaved vs creamed". 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 #469 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