Which to use
“clame” and “clay” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,947
- “clame” frequency rank
- #20,959
- “clay” frequency rank
- 51906
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clame | clay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Outillage de maintien d’une pièce mécanique pendant son usinage ou sa modification. | Pigeon d’argile utilisé au ball-trap. |
Where the eye mixes clame and clay
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses clame with clay
A purely visual mix-up. clame (\klam\) and clay (\klɛ\) 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 51906, 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\. clay is at rank #20,959, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klɛ\.
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 51906, this pair ranks #151,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clame vs clay
Shared letters: acl. Private to "clame": em. Private to "clay": y.
"clame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "clay" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clame" for "clay" ever safe?
Frequency check: "clame" vs "clay" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "clame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #151,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clame" and "clay" 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 #151,566 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.