Which to use
“clump” and “cup” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,110
- “clump” frequency rank
- #805
- “cup” frequency rank
- 31915
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clump | cup |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A cluster or lump; an unshaped piece or mass. | A concave vessel for drinking, usually made of opaque material (as opposed to a glass) and with a handle. |
Where the eye mixes clump and cup
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: clump vs cup
A purely visual mix-up. clump (/klʌmp/) and cup (/kʌp/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clump is recorded at frequency rank #31,110, classified as anoun, pronounced /klʌmp/. cup is at rank #805, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kʌp/.
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 31915, this pair ranks #342,131 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clump vs cup
Shared letters: cpu. Private to "clump": lm. Private to "cup": -.
"clump" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "cup" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- clump ← cclump · cllump · clmup · clummp · clumpp · clupm · culmp · lcump
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "clump" and "cup" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "clump" or "cup" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "clump" and "cup" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "clump" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #342,131 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clump" and "cup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chums vs clump". 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 #342,131 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.