Which to use
“clac” is an onomatopoeia and “claus” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,310
- “clac” frequency rank
- #39,220
- “claus” frequency rank
- 75530
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clac | claus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Onomatopée qui traduit un bruit sec et rapide. | Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe claure. |
Where the eye mixes clac and claus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. clac runs 4 letters (CCVC) against claus's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between clac and claus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clac is \klak\ while claus is [ˈklaws]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75530, 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\. claus is at rank #39,220, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈklaws].
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 75530, this pair ranks #33,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of clac vs claus
Shared letters: acl. Private to "clac": -. Private to "claus": su.
"clac" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "claus" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "clac" and "claus" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "clac" or "claus" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "clac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "claus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clac" and "claus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casus vs claus". 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 #33,793 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.