come clean
"come-clean" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“come clean” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To confess; admit the truth.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | come clean |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “come clean” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for come clean is 10 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To confess; admit the truth.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for come clean, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is come clean, spelled C-O-M-E- -C-L-E-A-N.
Definition
- 1To confess; admit the truth.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “come clean”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-M-E- -C-L-E-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.