Which to use
“cleve” is a noun and “close” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,535
- “cleve” frequency rank
- #431
- “close” frequency rank
- 47966
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cleve | close |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A room; chamber. | To remove or block an opening, gap or passage through. |
Letter map: cleve vs close
Shared letters muted; letters that set cleve and close apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for cleve / close
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cleve is anoun and closeaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cleve is recorded at frequency rank #47,535, classified as anoun. close is at rank #431, tagged as averb, pronounced /kləʊz/.
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 47966, this pair ranks #197,560 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cleve vs close
Shared letters: cel. Private to "cleve": v. Private to "close": os.
"cleve" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "close" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cleve" and "close" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cleve" or "close"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cleve" and "close".
- Full dictionary entry for "cleve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "close" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #197,560 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cleve" and "close" 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 #197,560 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.