camelvsclameWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: camel is a adjective, clame is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“camel” is an adjective and “clame” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,690
“camel” frequency rank
#30,947
“clame” frequency rank
72637
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature camel clame
Definition D’une couleur brune qui rappelle celle des poils du chameau. #C19A6B Outillage de maintien d’une pièce mécanique pendant son usinage ou sa modification.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set camel and clame apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
camel
5 ch
clame

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: camel is \ka.mɛl\ while clame is \klam\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

camel is recorded at frequency rank #41,690, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.mɛl\. clame is at rank #30,947, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klam\.

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 72637, this pair ranks #43,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of camel vs clame

Shared letters: acelm. Private to "camel": -. Private to "clame": -.

"camel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "clame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • camelacmel · caeml · camell · cammel · ccamel · cmael
  • clamecclame · claem · clamme · cllame · clmae · lcame

Frequency comparison

camel#41,690
clame#30,947

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "camel" and "clame" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "camel" is an adjective and "clame" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "camel" or "clame"?
"clame" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,947 in our French list, against #41,690 for "camel". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering camel vs clame

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “camel”; for a noun, it's “clame”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “camel” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list