Cleves
"cleves" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Cleves” is uncommon English (frequency #76,646 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,646
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Kleve (a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany).
Corpus desk
Index EN-cleves · Cleves · English
Cleves · rank #76,646 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #76,646
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH classism
Nearest frequency peer: classism (-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 “Cleves”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- churro
churro
23,360 corpus weight
- classism
classism
23,356 corpus weight
- Cleves
Cleves
23,355 corpus weight
- cloven
cloven
23,352 corpus weight
- clownfish
clownfish
23,351 corpus weight
- coffer
coffer
23,347 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Cleves” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Cleves |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #76,646 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Cleves” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Cleves is uncommon English at frequency #76,646 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Kleve (a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany).".
Zero misspellings are on record for Cleves in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French Clèves, from Old High German Cleve, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *klibą (“cliff”). Cognate with English cliff. There is no connection with German Klee (“clover”), the clovers in the city's coat of arms being an example of canting arms. The correct English form is Cleves, spelled C-L-E-V-E-S.
Definition
- 1Kleve (a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany).
Etymology
From French Clèves, from Old High German Cleve, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *klibą (“cliff”). Cognate with English cliff. There is no connection with German Klee (“clover”), the clovers in the city's coat of arms being an example of canting arms.
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 "Cleves", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).