clamevsclavelConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#30,947
“clame” frequency rank
#49,557
“clavel” frequency rank
80504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clame clavel
Definition Outillage de maintien d’une pièce mécanique pendant son usinage ou sa modification. Soude d’une qualité inférieure.

Where the eye mixes clame and clavel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. clame runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against clavel's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
clame
6 ch
clavel

Why the eye confuses clame with clavel

A purely visual mix-up. clame (\klam\) and clavel (\kla.vɛl\) 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 80504, 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\. clavel is at rank #49,557, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kla.vɛl\.

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 80504, this pair ranks #20,753 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of clame vs clavel

Shared letters: acel. Private to "clame": m. Private to "clavel": v.

"clame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "clavel" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clamecclame · claem · clamme · cllame · clmae · lcame
  • clavelcalvel · cclavel · claevl · clavell · clavle · clavvel · cllavel · clvael

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clame" for "clavel" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\klam\ versus \kla.vɛl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "clame" or "clavel" show up more?
"clame" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,947 in our French list, against #49,557 for "clavel". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clavel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,753 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clame" and "clavel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chapel 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 #20,753 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