Which to use
“cloth” and “clove” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,772
- “cloth” frequency rank
- #32,327
- “clove” frequency rank
- 39099
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cloth | clove |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes, woven fabric specifically. | A very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree. |
Where the eye mixes cloth and clove
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cloth (CCVCC) and clove (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: cloth vs clove
A purely visual mix-up. cloth (/klɒθ/) and clove (/kləʊv/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39099, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cloth is recorded at frequency rank #6,772, classified as anoun, pronounced /klɒθ/. clove is at rank #32,327, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kləʊv/.
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 39099, this pair ranks #279,849 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cloth vs clove
Shared letters: clo. Private to "cloth": ht. Private to "clove": ev.
"cloth" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "clove" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cloth" for "clove" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cloth" or "clove"?
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 "cloth" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clove" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #279,849 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cloth" and "clove" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Clo 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 #279,849 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.