clotvsclothsTell them apart

Which to use

“clot” and “cloths” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#22,618
“clot” frequency rank
#25,705
“cloths” frequency rank
48323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clot cloths
Definition A thrombus, solidified mass of blood. plural of cloth

Where the eye mixes clot and cloths

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. clot runs 4 letters (CCVC) against cloths's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
clot
6 ch
cloths

Why the eye confuses clot with cloths

A purely visual mix-up. clot (/klɒt/) and cloths (/klɒθs/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “clot” sits inside “cloths”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clot is recorded at frequency rank #22,618, classified as anoun, pronounced /klɒt/. cloths is at rank #25,705, tagged as anoun, pronounced /klɒθs/.

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 48323, this pair ranks #194,154 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clot vs cloths

Shared letters: clot. Private to "clot": -. Private to "cloths": hs.

"clot" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "cloths" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clot ← cclot · cllot · clott · clto · lcot
  • cloths ← ccloths · clloths · clohts · clothhs · clothss · clotsh · clotths · cltohs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "clot" and "cloths" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/klɒt/ versus /klɒθs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "clot" vs "cloths" - which ranks higher?
"clot" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,618 in our English list, against #25,705 for "cloths". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cloths" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #194,154 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clot" and "cloths" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clot vs Croat". 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 #194,154 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