cleve
"cleve" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cleve” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #47,535 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #47,535
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A room; chamber.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cleve |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #47,535 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cleve” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cleve is 5 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #47,535 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for cleve, with forms such as "ccleve", "celve", and "cleev". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "clue", "cove", "Cree", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cleve, from Old English clēofa, clēafa (“that which is cloven, a cleft, chasm, cave, den, lair, cell, chamber, cellar, apartment”), from Proto-Germanic *klebô (“chamber, cell”), from Proto-Indo-European *glewbʰ- (“to cut, cleave, split, … The correct English form is cleve, spelled C-L-E-V-E.
Definition
- 1A room; chamber.
- 2A cottage.
- 3A cliff or hillside.
Etymology
From Middle English cleve, from Old English clēofa, clēafa (“that which is cloven, a cleft, chasm, cave, den, lair, cell, chamber, cellar, apartment”), from Proto-Germanic *klebô (“chamber, cell”), from Proto-Indo-European *glewbʰ- (“to cut, cleave, split, divide”). Cognate with Old Norse klefi (“a closet, sleeping closet, bedroom”) (whence Icelandic klefi (“cell, compartment”)). Related to cleave.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccleve,celve,cleev,clevve,clleve,clvee,lceve
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cleve - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “cleve”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-L-E-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “clue” - see the side-by-side comparison. cleve vs clue
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.