clair vs clear, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“clair” and “clear” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,086
“clair” frequency rank: #30,948
“clear” frequency rank: 32034
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	clair	clear
Definition	Qui a l’éclat du jour, de la lumière.	Clair, limpide.

Where the eye mixes clair and clear

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch

clair

5 ch

clear

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. clair (\klɛʁ\) and clear (\klɪə(ɹ)\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32034, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clair is recorded at frequency rank #1,086, classified as anadj, pronounced \klɛʁ\. clear is at rank #30,948, tagged as anadj, pronounced \klɪə(ɹ)\.

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 32034, this pair ranks #299,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clair vs clear

Shared letters: aclr. Private to "clair": i. Private to "clear": e.

"clair" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "clear" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

clair ← calir · cclair · clairr · clari · cliar · cllair · lcair
clear ← cclear · celar · clearr · clera · cllear · lcear

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clair" and "clear" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\klɛʁ\ versus \klɪə(ɹ)\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "clair" or "clear"?

"clair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,086 in our French list, against #30,948 for "clear". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "clair" and "clear". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "clair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "clear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #299,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"clair" and "clear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cedar vs clear". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.