Which to use
“clough” and “couch” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,578
- “clough” frequency rank
- #5,407
- “couch” frequency rank
- 38985
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clough | couch |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge. | An item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one person; a sofa. |
Where the eye mixes clough and couch
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. clough runs 6 letters (CCVVCC) against couch's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: clough vs couch
A purely visual mix-up. clough (/klʌf/) and couch (/kaʊt͡ʃ/) 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 38985, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clough is recorded at frequency rank #33,578, classified as anoun, pronounced /klʌf/. couch is at rank #5,407, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kaʊt͡ʃ/.
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 38985, this pair ranks #280,896 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clough vs couch
Shared letters: chou. Private to "clough": gl. Private to "couch": -.
"clough" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "couch" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clough" for "couch" ever safe?
Frequency check: "clough" vs "couch" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "clough" and "couch" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "clough" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "couch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #280,896 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clough" and "couch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clog vs clough". 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 #280,896 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.