clottingvscloudingWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,987
“clotting” frequency rank
#49,830
“clouding” frequency rank
83817
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clotting clouding
Definition present participle and gerund of clot present participle and gerund of cloud

Letter map: clotting vs clouding

Shared letters muted; letters that set clotting and clouding apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. clotting (CCVCCVCC) and clouding (CCVVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
clotting
8 ch
clouding

Spelling & dictionary notes on clotting vs clouding

clotting and clouding are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83817, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clotting is recorded at frequency rank #33,987, classified as averb. clouding is at rank #49,830, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈklaʊdɪŋ/.

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 83817, this pair ranks #13,107 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of clotting vs clouding

Shared letters: cgilno. Private to "clotting": t. Private to "clouding": du.

"clotting" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "clouding" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clotting ← cclotting · cllotting · cloting · clotitng · clottign · clottingg · clottinng · clottnig
  • clouding ← cclouding · cllouding · cloduing · cloudding · cloudign · cloudingg · cloudinng · cloudnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clotting" for "clouding" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "clotting" vs "clouding" - which ranks higher?
"clotting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,987 in our English list, against #49,830 for "clouding". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "clotting" vs "clouding" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clotting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clouding" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,107 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clotting" and "clouding" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cloaking vs clouding". 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 #13,107 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