Which to use
“clove” and “cloves” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,327
- “clove” frequency rank
- #26,373
- “cloves” frequency rank
- 58700
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clove | cloves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree. | plural of clove |
Where the eye mixes clove and cloves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. clove runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against cloves's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between clove and cloves
A purely visual mix-up. clove (/kləʊv/) and cloves (/kləʊvz/) 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 extra letter(s) - “clove” sits inside “cloves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58700, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clove is recorded at frequency rank #32,327, classified as anoun, pronounced /kləʊv/. cloves is at rank #26,373, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kləʊvz/.
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 58700, this pair ranks #110,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of clove vs cloves
Shared letters: celov. Private to "clove": -. Private to "cloves": s.
"clove" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "cloves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clove" and "cloves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "clove" or "cloves"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "clove" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cloves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #110,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clove" and "cloves" 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 #110,867 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.