ClintonvsClintonsTell them apart

Which to use

“Clinton” and “Clintons” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,619
“Clinton” frequency rank
#24,409
“Clintons” frequency rank
27028
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Clinton Clintons
Definition A surname. plural of Clinton

Letter map: Clinton vs Clintons

Shared letters muted; letters that set Clinton and Clintons apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. Clinton runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against Clintons's 8 (CCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Clinton
8 ch
Clintons

Spelling & dictionary notes on Clinton vs Clintons

Clinton and Clintons 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 1 extra letter(s) - “Clinton” sits inside “Clintons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27028, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Clinton is recorded at frequency rank #2,619, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈklɪn.tn̩/. Clintons is at rank #24,409, tagged as aname.

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 27028, this pair ranks #382,192 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Clinton vs Clintons

Shared letters: cilnot. Private to "Clinton": -. Private to "Clintons": s.

"Clinton" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "Clintons" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Clinton ← cclinton · cilnton · clinnton · clinotn · clintno · clintonn · clintton · clitnon
  • Clintons ← cclintons · cilntons · clinntons · clinotns · clintnos · clintonns · clintonss · clintosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Clinton" for "Clintons" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Clinton” sits inside “Clintons”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "Clinton" vs "Clintons" - which ranks higher?
"Clinton" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,619 in our English list, against #24,409 for "Clintons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Clinton" and "Clintons".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Clinton" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Clintons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #382,192 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Clinton" and "Clintons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Clifton vs Clintons". 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 #382,192 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