Which to use
“cane” and “clans” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,725
- “cane” frequency rank
- #12,127
- “clans” frequency rank
- 44852
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cane | clans |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femelle du canard. | Pluriel de clan. |
Where the eye mixes cane and clans
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cane with clans
A purely visual mix-up. cane (\kan\) and clans (\klɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44852, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cane is recorded at frequency rank #32,725, classified as anoun, pronounced \kan\. clans is at rank #12,127, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klɑ̃\.
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 44852, this pair ranks #207,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cane vs clans
Shared letters: acn. Private to "cane": e. Private to "clans": ls.
"cane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "clans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cane" and "clans" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cane" or "clans"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cane" and "clans" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #207,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cane" and "clans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cane vs conde". 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 #207,318 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.