Which to use
“clothe” is a verb and “clove” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,249
- “clothe” frequency rank
- #32,327
- “clove” frequency rank
- 71576
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clothe | clove |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To adorn or cover with clothing; to dress; to supply clothes or clothing. | A very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree. |
Where the eye mixes clothe and clove
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. clothe runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against clove's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between clothe and clove
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clothe is /ˈkləʊð/ while clove is /kləʊv/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71576, 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/. 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 71576, this pair ranks #46,175 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of clothe vs clove
Shared letters: celo. Private to "clothe": ht. Private to "clove": v.
"clothe" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "clove" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clothe" for "clove" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "clothe" or "clove" show up more?
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 "clothe" 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 #46,175 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clothe" 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 #46,175 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.