clanvsCMAWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,412
“clan” frequency rank
#36,763
“CMA” frequency rank
41175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clan CMA
Definition Chez les Celtes, tribu formée d’un certain nombre de familles. Organisme consulaire chargé de développer l’activité économique dans le domaine de l'artisanat.

Where the eye mixes clan and CMA

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
clan
3 ch
CMA

Why the eye confuses clan with CMA

A purely visual mix-up. clan (\klɑ̃\) and CMA (\se.ɛm.a\) 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 41175, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clan is recorded at frequency rank #4,412, classified as anoun, pronounced \klɑ̃\. CMA is at rank #36,763, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.ɛm.a\.

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 41175, this pair ranks #235,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clan vs CMA

Shared letters: ac. Private to "clan": ln. Private to "CMA": m.

"clan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "CMA" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clancaln · cclan · clann · cllan · clna · lcan

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "clan" and "CMA" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\klɑ̃\ versus \se.ɛm.a\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "clan" vs "CMA" - which ranks higher?
"clan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,412 in our French list, against #36,763 for "CMA". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "clan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CMA" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #235,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clan" and "CMA" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs CMA". 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 #235,064 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