clamber
/ˈklæmbə/
"clamber" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“clamber” is uncommon English (frequency #73,070 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,070
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To climb (something) with some difficulty, or in a haphazard fashion.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | clamber |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈklæmbə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #73,070 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “clamber” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
clamber is uncommon English at frequency #73,070 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈklæmbə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To climb (something) with some difficulty, or in a haphazard fashion.".
No misspelling variants are generated for clamber in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English clambren, clameren, clemeren (“to climb, clamber; to crawl, creep”), then either: * possibly from clam, clamb, clemb, past tense of climben (“to climb, get over; to ascend, rise”), and influenced by Old English clæmman (“to press”); or *… The correct English form is clamber, spelled C-L-A-M-B-E-R.
Definition
- 1To climb (something) with some difficulty, or in a haphazard fashion.
Etymology
From Middle English clambren, clameren, clemeren (“to climb, clamber; to crawl, creep”), then either: * possibly from clam, clamb, clemb, past tense of climben (“to climb, get over; to ascend, rise”), and influenced by Old English clæmman (“to press”); or * from Old English *clambrian, from Proto-Germanic *klambrōną or *klambizōną. The English word is cognate with Low German klemmern, klempern (“to climb”), Scots clammer (“to clamber”); and compare also Danish klamre (“to cling”), Icelandic klambra, klembra (“to pinch closely together; clamp”), Swedish klamra (“to cling”). The noun is derived from the verb.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “clamber”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-L-A-M-B-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈklæmbə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.