clown
/klaʊn/
"clown" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“clown” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #7,896. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #7,896
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.
Corpus desk
Index EN-clown · clown · English
clown · rank #7,896 · 8 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #7,896
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Chad
Nearest frequency peer: Chad (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “clown”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- buys
buys
92,109 corpus weight
- Chad
Chad
92,106 corpus weight
- clown
clown
92,105 corpus weight
- committees
committees
92,104 corpus weight
- conjunction
conjunction
92,103 corpus weight
- costly
costly
92,102 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “clown” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | clown |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /klaʊn/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,896 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “clown” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around clown (IPA /klaʊn/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #7,896 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for clown, with forms such as "cclown", "cllown", and "clonw". 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, "con", "cow", "coin", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”); likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Swedish kluns (“clumsy fellow”), all from Middle Low German klunz, from klunt (“pile, lump, s… The correct English form is clown, spelled C-L-O-W-N.
Definition
- 1A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.
- 2A person who acts in a silly fashion.
- 3A stupid person.
- 4A man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an illbred person; a boor.
- 5One who works upon the soil; a rustic; a churl; a yokel.
- 6A clownfish.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how clown appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Over there in Norway, the churches all burn down / Let's go dress in goth clothes and get painted like a clown
He was regarded as the clown of the school, always playing pranks.
Etymology
From earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”); likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Swedish kluns (“clumsy fellow”), all from Middle Low German klunz, from klunt (“pile, lump, something thick”); according to Pokorny, this could be related to a group of Germanic derivatives of Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up; amass”), such as Proto-West Germanic *klott (“lump”), Proto-Germanic *klūtaz (“clod, lump”), *kultaz (“lump, bundle”), etc. Alternatively, directly from Low German (compare North Frisian klönne (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kluns (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kloen (“uncouth person, lout”)), themselves from the same ultimate source as above. Unlikely from Latin colōnus (“colonist, farmer”), although learned awareness of this term may have influenced semantic development.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- cclown
- cllown
- clonw
- clownn
- clowwn
- clwon
- colwn
- lcown
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of clown - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "clown", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "clown". Here's where to go from here.
- "clown" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "con". View pair
- 8 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #7,896 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "C" letter cohort. C–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.