clamevsclarkWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,947
“clame” frequency rank
#7,943
“clark” frequency rank
38890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clame clark
Definition Outillage de maintien d’une pièce mécanique pendant son usinage ou sa modification. Chariot élévateur motorisé.

Where the eye mixes clame and clark

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. clame (CCVCV) and clark (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
clame
5 ch
clark

Visual trap between clame and clark

A purely visual mix-up. clame (\klam\) and clark (\klaʁk\) 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 38890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clame is recorded at frequency rank #30,947, classified as anoun, pronounced \klam\. clark is at rank #7,943, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klaʁk\.

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 38890, this pair ranks #252,072 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clame vs clark

Shared letters: acl. Private to "clame": em. Private to "clark": kr.

"clame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "clark" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clamecclame · claem · clamme · cllame · clmae · lcame
  • clarkcalrk · cclark · clakr · clarkk · clarrk · cllark · clrak · lcark

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clame" for "clark" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\klam\ versus \klaʁk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "clame" or "clark"?
"clark" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,943 in our French list, against #30,947 for "clame". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "clame" and "clark" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clark" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,072 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clame" and "clark" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clame vs clavel". 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 #252,072 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list