ClovscloseWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#48,144
“Clo” frequency rank
#431
“close” frequency rank
48575
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Clo close
Definition Abbreviation of close (in street addresses). To remove or block an opening, gap or passage through.

Letter map: Clo vs close

Shared letters muted; letters that set Clo and close apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
Clo
5 ch
close

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Clo is anoun and closeaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Clo” sits inside “close”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Clo is recorded at frequency rank #48,144, 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 48575, this pair ranks #191,732 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Clo vs close

Shared letters: clo. Private to "Clo": -. Private to "close": es.

"Clo" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "close" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • closecclose · cllose · cloes · closse · clsoe · colse · lcose

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Clo" and "close" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Clo" is a noun and "close" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Clo" or "close"?
"close" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #431 in our English list, against #48,144 for "Clo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list