clivage
\kli.vaʒ\
The verdict
“clivage” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #18,961 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #18,961
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Plans cristallins déterminés par la structure atomique tridimensionnelle de chaque espèce minérale. Il s’agit d'une propriété des minéraux de se fendre le long de faces planes (plans de clivage) qu...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | clivage |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kli.vaʒ\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #18,961 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “clivage” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for clivage is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kli.vaʒ\. Corpus data places it at rank #18,961 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for clivage, with forms such as "cclivage", "cilvage", and "cliavge". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "clonage", "clivages", "climate", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is clivage, spelled C-L-I-V-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1Plans cristallins déterminés par la structure atomique tridimensionnelle de chaque espèce minérale. Il s’agit d'une propriété des minéraux de se fendre le long de faces planes (plans de clivage) qui suivent l’organisation de ses couches atomiques ou de leur symétrie.
- 2Action de cliver les diamants.
- 3Fracture dans un groupe humain, une organisation.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cclivage,cilvage,cliavge,clivaeg,clivagge,clivgae,clivvage,cllivage,clviage,lcivage
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of clivage - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "clivage"?
What does "clivage" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "clivage"?
How do you pronounce "clivage"?
What language does "clivage" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “clivage”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-L-I-V-A-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kli.vaʒ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “clonage” - see the side-by-side comparison. clivage vs clonage
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French 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.