Which to use
“clone” is a noun and “clothe” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,518
- “clone” frequency rank
- #39,249
- “clothe” frequency rank
- 50767
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clone | clothe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A living organism (originally a plant) produced asexually from a single ancestor, to which it is genetically identical. | To adorn or cover with clothing; to dress; to supply clothes or clothing. |
Where the eye mixes clone and clothe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: clone vs clothe
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clone is /kloʊn/ while clothe is /ˈkləʊð/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50767, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clone is recorded at frequency rank #11,518, classified as anoun, pronounced /kloʊn/. clothe is at rank #39,249, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkləʊð/.
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 50767, this pair ranks #171,328 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clone vs clothe
Shared letters: celo. Private to "clone": n. Private to "clothe": ht.
"clone" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "clothe" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clone" and "clothe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "clone" or "clothe"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "clone" and "clothe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "clone" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clothe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,328 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clone" and "clothe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clothe vs clove". 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 #171,328 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.