clef
/klɛf/
"clef" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“clef” is uncommon English (frequency #56,015 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,015
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A symbol found on a musical staff that indicates the pitches represented by the lines and the spaces on the staff
Corpus desk
Index EN-clef · clef · English
clef · rank #56,015 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #56,015
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH clothesline
Nearest frequency peer: clothesline (+1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “clef”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Cincy
Cincy
43,989 corpus weight
- citron
citron
43,988 corpus weight
- clef
clef
43,986 corpus weight
- clothesline
clothesline
43,985 corpus weight
- coarsely
coarsely
43,984 corpus weight
- codification
codification
43,983 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “clef” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | clef |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /klɛf/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #56,015 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “clef” in English
Rare enough to double-check
clef is uncommon English at frequency #56,015 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /klɛf/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A symbol found on a musical staff that indicates the pitches represented by the lines and the spaces on the staff".
Zero misspellings are on record for clef in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French clef, from Latin clāvis (“a key”). Doublet of clave and clavis. The correct English form is clef, spelled C-L-E-F.
Definition
- 1A symbol found on a musical staff that indicates the pitches represented by the lines and the spaces on the staff
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French clef, from Latin clāvis (“a key”). Doublet of clave and clavis.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "clef", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).