Which to use
“close” is a verb and “Clyde” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #431
- “close” frequency rank
- #10,828
- “Clyde” frequency rank
- 11259
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | close | Clyde |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To remove or block an opening, gap or passage through. | A major river in Scotland, flowing from South Lanarkshire council area, past North Lanarkshire council area, through Glasgow council area, and past Renfrewshire council area and West Dunbartonshire council area, to the Firth of Clyde. |
Where the eye mixes close and Clyde
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses close with Clyde
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: close is /kləʊz/ while Clyde is /klʌɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
close is recorded at frequency rank #431, classified as averb, pronounced /kləʊz/. Clyde is at rank #10,828, tagged as aname, pronounced /klʌɪd/.
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 11259, this pair ranks #488,023 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of close vs Clyde
Shared letters: cel. Private to "close": os. Private to "Clyde": dy.
"close" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "Clyde" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "close" for "Clyde" ever safe?
Which is more common, "close" or "Clyde"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "close" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Clyde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #488,023 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "close" and "Clyde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cleve vs Clyde". 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 #488,023 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.