clean slate
"clean-slate" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“clean slate” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A fresh start.
Corpus desk
Index EN-clean-slate · clean slate · English
clean slate · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | clean slate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “clean slate” in English
Rare enough to double-check
clean slate is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for clean slate in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is clean slate, spelled C-L-E-A-N- -S-L-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1A fresh start.
- 2A slate on which the courses steered by a ship (and distances run) were recorded, but have been wiped clean after being entered in the log at the end of a watch.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how clean slate appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonyms: new leaf, new page, new canvas, new sheet; blank slate, blank canvas, tabula rasa
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.