clothesvsclutchesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,932
“clothes” frequency rank
#23,493
“clutches” frequency rank
25425
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clothes clutches
Definition Items of clothing; apparel. plural of clutch

Where the eye mixes clothes and clutches

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. clothes runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against clutches's 8 (CCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
clothes
8 ch
clutches

Look-alike desk: clothes vs clutches

A purely visual mix-up. clothes (/kləʊ(ð)z/) and clutches (/ˈklʌt͡ʃɪz/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clothes is recorded at frequency rank #1,932, classified as anoun, pronounced /kləʊ(ð)z/. clutches is at rank #23,493, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈklʌt͡ʃɪz/.

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 25425, this pair ranks #394,387 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clothes vs clutches

Shared letters: cehlst. Private to "clothes": o. Private to "clutches": u.

"clothes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "clutches" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clothescclothes · cllothes · clohtes · clotehs · clothess · clothhes · clothse · clotthes
  • clutchescclutches · cllutches · cltuches · clucthes · clutcches · clutcehs · clutchess · clutchhes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "clothes" and "clutches" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kləʊ(ð)z/ versus /ˈklʌt͡ʃɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "clothes" vs "clutches" - which ranks higher?
"clothes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,932 in our English list, against #23,493 for "clutches". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "clothes" and "clutches" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clothes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clutches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #394,387 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clothes" and "clutches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clutches vs crunches". 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 #394,387 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