clearvscreerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: clear is a adjective, creer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“clear” is an adjective and “creer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,980
“clear” frequency rank
#864
“creer” frequency rank
37844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clear creer
Definition Claro. Estar persuadido de que algo es cierto.

Where the eye mixes clear and creer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. clear and creer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
clear
5 ch
creer

Why the eye confuses clear with creer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clear is /klɪə(ɹ)/ while creer is [kɾeˈeɾ]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clear is recorded at frequency rank #36,980, classified as anadj, pronounced /klɪə(ɹ)/. creer is at rank #864, tagged as averb, pronounced [kɾeˈeɾ].

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 37844, this pair ranks #173,172 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clear vs creer

Shared letters: cer. Private to "clear": al. Private to "creer": -.

"clear" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "creer" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clear ← cclear · celar · claer · clearr · clera · cllear · lcear
  • creer ← ccreer · cerer · creerr · crer · crere · crreer · rceer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clear" and "creer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "clear" is an adjective and "creer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "clear" or "creer" show up more?
"creer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #864 in our Spanish list, against #36,980 for "clear". 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 "clear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "creer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #173,172 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clear" and "creer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clear vs clonar". 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 #173,172 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