Which to use
“clem” is a verb and “cleve” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,597
- “clem” frequency rank
- #47,535
- “cleve” frequency rank
- 77132
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clem | cleve |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To be hungry; starve. | A room; chamber. |
Letter map: clem vs cleve
Shared letters muted; letters that set clem and cleve apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for clem / cleve
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: clem is averb and cleveanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clem is recorded at frequency rank #29,597, classified as averb, pronounced /klɛm/. 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 77132, this pair ranks #28,122 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of clem vs cleve
Shared letters: cel. Private to "clem": m. Private to "cleve": v.
"clem" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "cleve" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clem" for "cleve" ever safe?
Frequency check: "clem" vs "cleve" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "clem" and "cleve".
- Full dictionary entry for "clem" 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 #28,122 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clem" and "cleve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cleaved vs cleve". 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 #28,122 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.