cebravsClaraWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cebra is a noun, Clara is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cebra” is a noun and “Clara” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,376
“cebra” frequency rank
#1,565
“Clara” frequency rank
31941
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cebra Clara
Definition Nombre común a varias especies de mamíferos perisodáctilos, de la familia équidos, parecidos al asno, de pelaje amarillento con franjas pardas o negras. Nombre de pila de mujer.

Where the eye mixes cebra and Clara

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cebra
5 ch
Clara

Why the eye confuses cebra with Clara

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cebra is [ˈseβ̞ɾa] while Clara is [ˈklaɾa]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cebra is recorded at frequency rank #30,376, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈseβ̞ɾa]. Clara is at rank #1,565, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈklaɾa].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 31941, this pair ranks #204,530 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cebra vs Clara

Shared letters: acr. Private to "cebra": be. Private to "Clara": l.

"cebra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Clara" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cebracbera · ccebra · cebar · cebbra · cebrra · cerba · cevra · ecbra
  • Claracalra · cclara · claar · clarra · cllara · clraa · lcara

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cebra" and "Clara" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cebra" is a noun and "Clara" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cebra" or "Clara" show up more?
"Clara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,565 in our Spanish list, against #30,376 for "cebra". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cebra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Clara" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #204,530 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cebra" and "Clara" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cebra vs cederá". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #204,530 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list