ClovsClosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Clo is a noun, Clos is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Clo” is a noun and “Clos” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,144
“Clo” frequency rank
#44,123
“Clos” frequency rank
92267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Clo Clos
Definition Abbreviation of close (in street addresses). A surname.

Letter map: Clo vs Clos

Shared letters muted; letters that set Clo and Clos apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Clo runs 3 letters (CCV) against Clos's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
Clo
4 ch
Clos

Grammar separator: Clo vs Clos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Clo is anoun and Closaname. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Clo” sits inside “Clos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Clo is recorded at frequency rank #48,144, classified as anoun. Clos is at rank #44,123, 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 92267, this pair ranks #2,699 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Clo vs Clos

Shared letters: clo. Private to "Clo": -. Private to "Clos": s.

"Clo" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "Clos" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Clos ← cclos · cllos · closs · clso · lcos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Clo" and "Clos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Clo" is a noun and "Clos" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Clo" vs "Clos" - which ranks higher?
"Clos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,123 in our English list, against #48,144 for "Clo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Clo" vs "Clos" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Clo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Clos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,699 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Clo" and "Clos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CGT vs Clo". 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 #2,699 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