clearance
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
9 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "clearance", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "clearance" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "clearance" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
clearance is aEnglishnoun. It means: The act of clearing or something (such as a space) cleared. Pronounced /ˈklɪəɹən(t)s/. It ranks #7,540 in English word frequency. Often confused with clarence.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | clearance |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈklɪəɹən(t)s/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #7,540 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for clearance is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈklɪəɹən(t)s/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,540 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 14 documented wrong-spelling variants for clearance, with forms such as "cclearance", "celarance", and "claerance". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "clarence", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From clear + -ance. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is clearance, spelled C-L-E-A-R-A-N-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The act of clearing or something (such as a space) cleared.
- 2The distance between two moving objects, especially between parts of a machine
- 3The height or width of a tunnel, bridge or other passage, or the distance between a vehicle and the walls or roof of such passage; a gap, headroom.
- 4A permission for a vehicle to proceed, or for a person to travel.
- 5A permission to have access to sensitive or secret documents or other information.
- 6A permission to use something, usually intellectual property, that is legally, but not otherwise, protected.
- 7A sale of merchandise, especially at significantly reduced prices, usually in order to make room for new merchandise or updated versions of the same merchandise; sometimes as a closeout.
- 8The settlement of transactions involving securities or means of payment such as checks by means of a clearing house.
- 9The removal of harmful substances from the blood; renal clearance.
- 10The act of potting all the remaining balls on a table at one visit.
- 11The act of kicking a ball away from the goal one is defending.
- 12Removal of pieces from a rank, file or diagonal so that a bishop, rook or queen is free to move along it.
- 13Clear or net profit.
- 14The first disposal in a chain that leaves the area of a stoppage, or a disposal that leaves the area of a stoppage itself.
- 15The act of leaving the area of a stoppage.
Etymology
From clear + -ance.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cclearance,celarance,claerance,cleaarnce,clearacne,clearancce,clearanec,clearannce,clearence,clearnace,clearrance,cleraance,cllearance,lcearance
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for clearance
Misspelling Variants of "clearance"
Frequency rank: #7,540 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "clearance"?
What does "clearance" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "clearance"?
How do you pronounce "clearance"?
What is the origin of the word "clearance"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: