Which to use
“clone” and “cole” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,518
- “clone” frequency rank
- #5,308
- “cole” frequency rank
- 16826
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clone | cole |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A living organism (originally a plant) produced asexually from a single ancestor, to which it is genetically identical. | Cabbage. |
Where the eye mixes clone and cole
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: clone vs cole
A purely visual mix-up. clone (/kloʊn/) and cole (/kəʊl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16826, 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/. cole is at rank #5,308, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kəʊl/.
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 16826, this pair ranks #455,348 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of clone vs cole
Shared letters: celo. Private to "clone": n. Private to "cole": -.
"clone" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "cole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clone" and "cole" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "clone" vs "cole" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "clone" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #455,348 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clone" and "cole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Clo vs clone". 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 #455,348 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.