Which to use
“cause” and “clause” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #332
- “cause” frequency rank
- #7,164
- “clause” frequency rank
- 7496
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cause | clause |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qui fait qu’une chose est ou s’opère. | Disposition particulière faisant partie d’un traité, d’un contrat, d’un arrêté, d’une loi ou de tout autre acte public ou particulier, etc. |
Where the eye mixes cause and clause
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cause vs clause
A purely visual mix-up. cause (\koz\) and clause (\kloz\) 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 7496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cause is recorded at frequency rank #332, classified as anoun, pronounced \koz\. clause is at rank #7,164, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kloz\.
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 7496, this pair ranks #422,988 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cause vs clause
Shared letters: acesu. Private to "cause": -. Private to "clause": l.
"cause" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "clause" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cause" for "clause" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cause" vs "clause" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cause" and "clause" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cause" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clause" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #422,988 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cause" and "clause" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "claquée vs clause". 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 #422,988 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.