cloth
/klɒθ/
"cloth" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cloth” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,772 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,772
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes, woven fabric specifically.
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 | cloth |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /klɒθ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,772 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cloth” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cloth is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /klɒθ/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,772 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for cloth, with forms such as "ccloth", "clloth", and "cloht". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cot", "cote", "cloud", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cloth, clath, from Old English clāþ (“cloth, clothes, covering, sail”), from Proto-Germanic *klaiþą (“garment”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gleyt- (“to cling to, cleave, stick”) (compare Albanian ngjit (“to stick, attach, glue”)),… The correct English form is cloth, spelled C-L-O-T-H.
Definition
- 1A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes, woven fabric specifically.
- 2Specifically, a tablecloth, especially as spread before a meal or removed afterwards.
- 3A piece of cloth used for a particular purpose.
- 4Substance or essence; the whole of something complex.
- 5Appearance; seeming.
- 6A form of attire that represents a particular profession or status.
- 7The priesthood.
Etymology
From Middle English cloth, clath, from Old English clāþ (“cloth, clothes, covering, sail”), from Proto-Germanic *klaiþą (“garment”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gleyt- (“to cling to, cleave, stick”) (compare Albanian ngjit (“to stick, attach, glue”)), a form of *gleh₁y- (“to smear; to stick”). Cognate with Scots clath (“cloth”), North Frisian klaid (“dress, garment”), Saterland Frisian Klood (“dress, apparel”), West Frisian kleed (“cloth, article of clothing”), Dutch kleed (“robe, dress”), Low German kleed (“dress, garment”), German Kleid (“gown, dress”), Danish klæde (“cloth, dress”), Norwegian klede, Swedish kläde (“cloth”), Icelandic klæði (“cloth, dressing”), Old English clīþan (“to adhere, stick”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccloth,clloth,cloht,clothh,clotth,cltoh,colth,lcoth
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cloth - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “cloth”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-L-O-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /klɒθ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cot” - see the side-by-side comparison. cloth vs cot
- 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.