clamp

\klɑ̃p\

/\klɑ̃p\/ noun

The verdict

“clamp” is uncommon French (frequency #73,838 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#73,838
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pince servant à maintenir ou à serrer.

Corpus desk

Index FR-clamp · clamp · French

clamp · rank #73,838 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #73,838
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH clamait

Nearest frequency peer: clamait (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « clamp »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « clamp » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for clamp
PropertyValue
Headwordclamp
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\klɑ̃p\
Letters5
Frequency rank#73,838
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « clamp » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).clamptombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « clamait » (#73,837), « cochenille » (#73,839), « clairsemée » (#73,836). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « clamp » est au #73,838. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

clamp is uncommon French at frequency #73,838 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \klɑ̃p\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Pince servant à maintenir ou à serrer.".

clamp doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is clamp, spelled C-L-A-M-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pince servant à maintenir ou à serrer.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Après les clamps de Henry, de Horteloup et de Wickham, nous devons citer la pince de Bazy, modifiée par M. Dardignac, qui a ajouté une lame métallique parallèle à l'un des mors et appelée protecteur mobile, le clamp de liège du professeur Delorme du Val de Grâce, et enfin le clamp du docteur Baissas dont l'usage nous parait assurer à l'opération le maximu…
  2. La pièce enlevée, on aura donc dans la plaie un clamp sur le pylore, une pince sur le cholédoque, un clamp sur le duodénum et un clamp sur le pancréas.

Synonyms

pinces hémostatiquespinces occlusivespince à lingegarrot

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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "clamp"?
"clamp" is spelled C-L-A-M-P. The IPA pronunciation is \klɑ̃p\.
What does "clamp" mean?
As a noun, "clamp" means: Pince servant à maintenir ou à serrer.
How do you pronounce "clamp"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "clamp" is \klɑ̃p\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "clamp" come from?
"clamp" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "clamp", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list