Which to use
“clothe” is a verb and “clothes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,249
- “clothe” frequency rank
- #1,932
- “clothes” frequency rank
- 41181
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clothe | clothes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To adorn or cover with clothing; to dress; to supply clothes or clothing. | Items of clothing; apparel. |
Where the eye mixes clothe and clothes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. clothe runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against clothes's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses clothe with clothes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clothe is /ˈkləʊð/ while clothes is /kləʊ(ð)z/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “clothe” sits inside “clothes”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41181, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clothe is recorded at frequency rank #39,249, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈkləʊð/. clothes is at rank #1,932, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kləʊ(ð)z/.
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 41181, this pair ranks #260,803 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clothe vs clothes
Shared letters: cehlot. Private to "clothe": -. Private to "clothes": s.
"clothe" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "clothes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clothe" for "clothes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "clothe" vs "clothes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "clothe" and "clothes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "clothe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clothes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #260,803 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clothe" and "clothes" 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 #260,803 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.