clade

\klad\

/\klad\/ noun

The verdict

“clade” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
5
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Groupe monophylétique d’êtres vivants comprenant un ancêtre commun unique et tous ses descendants, formant une unité évolutive naturelle.

Corpus desk

Index FR-clade · clade · French

clade · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "C" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for clade
PropertyValue
Headwordclade
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\klad\
Letters5
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « clade » en français

cladereste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

clade is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \klad\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Groupe monophylétique d’êtres vivants comprenant un ancêtre commun unique et tous ses descendants, formant une unité évolutive naturelle.".

clade doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is clade, spelled C-L-A-D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Groupe monophylétique d’êtres vivants comprenant un ancêtre commun unique et tous ses descendants, formant une unité évolutive naturelle.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how clade appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Alors que de nombreuses études génomiques situent la divergence entre l’Homme et le chimpanzé à 5 à 6 millions d’années et celle entre l’Homme et le gorille à 6 à 8 millions d’années, Chorora réfute l’hypothèse d’une origine eurasienne du clade des grands singes africains et des humains.
  2. Il ressort que les deux virus isolés chez un même individu appartiennent tous deux au même clade 20C qui représente le lignage prédominant observé dans le Nevada. Les virus isolés chez cet individu sont donc des variants ou souches possédant des caractéristiques génétiques communes permettant de les regrouper dans un même clade.

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

How do you spell "clade"?
"clade" is spelled C-L-A-D-E. The IPA pronunciation is \klad\.
What does "clade" mean?
As a noun, "clade" means: Groupe monophylétique d’êtres vivants comprenant un ancêtre commun unique et tous ses descendants, formant une unité évolutive naturelle.
How do you pronounce "clade"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "clade" is \klad\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "clade" come from?
"clade" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list