Which to use
“clac” is an onomatopoeia and “clash” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,310
- “clac” frequency rank
- #17,377
- “clash” frequency rank
- 53687
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clac | clash |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Onomatopée qui traduit un bruit sec et rapide. | Conflit ; dispute. |
Where the eye mixes clac and clash
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between clac and clash
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clac is \klak\ while clash is \klaʃ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (onomatopoeia vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clac is recorded at frequency rank #36,310, classified as anonomatopoeia, pronounced \klak\. clash is at rank #17,377, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klaʃ\.
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 53687, this pair ranks #139,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clac vs clash
Shared letters: acl. Private to "clac": -. Private to "clash": hs.
"clac" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "clash" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clac" for "clash" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "clac" or "clash" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "clac" and "clash" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "clac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clash" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #139,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clac" and "clash" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs clac". 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 #139,086 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.