Which to use
“clinic” is a noun and “clinical” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,015
- “clinic” frequency rank
- #2,932
- “clinical” frequency rank
- 7947
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clinic | clinical |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A medical facility, such as a hospital, especially one for the treatment and diagnosis of outpatients. | Dealing with the practical management of patients, in practice at the point of care; as contrasted with other health care venues (see clinical medicine for more explanation). |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set clinic and clinical apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
clinic and clinical form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “clinic” sits inside “clinical” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7947, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clinic is recorded at frequency rank #5,015, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈklɪn.ɪk/. clinical is at rank #2,932, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈklɪnɪkəl/.
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 7947, this pair ranks #504,828 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "clinic" and "clinical" be used interchangeably?
Remembering clinic vs clinical
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “clinic”; for an adjective, it's “clinical”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “clinic” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable