ClaudelvsclauseWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Claudel is a name, clause is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Claudel” is a name and “clause” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,516
“Claudel” frequency rank
#7,164
“clause” frequency rank
29680
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Claudel clause
Definition Nom de famille, connu entre autres par Paul Claudel, écrivain français, Camille Claudel, sculptrice française, et Philippe Claudel, écrivain français. Disposition particulière faisant partie d’un traité, d’un contrat, d’un arrêté, d’une loi ou de tout autre acte public ou particulier, etc.

Where the eye mixes Claudel and clause

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Claudel runs 7 letters (CCVVCVC) against clause's 6 (CCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Claudel
6 ch
clause

Visual trap between Claudel and clause

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Claudel is \klɔ.dɛl\ while clause is \kloz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29680, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Claudel is recorded at frequency rank #22,516, classified as aname, pronounced \klɔ.dɛl\. clause is at rank #7,164, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kloz\.

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 29680, this pair ranks #315,158 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Claudel vs clause

Shared letters: acelu. Private to "Claudel": d. Private to "clause": s.

"Claudel" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "clause" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Claudelcaludel · cclaudel · claduel · clauddel · claudell · claudle · clauedl · cllaudel
  • clausecaluse · cclause · clasue · claues · clausse · cllause · cluase · lcause

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Claudel" and "clause" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Claudel" is a name and "clause" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Claudel" or "clause"?
"clause" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,164 in our French list, against #22,516 for "Claudel". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Claudel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clause" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #315,158 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Claudel" and "clause" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Claudel 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 #315,158 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