Which to use
“clauses” is a noun and “close” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,742
- “clauses” frequency rank
- #10,842
- “close” frequency rank
- 23584
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clauses | close |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de clause. | Féminin singulier de clos. |
Same sound, different letters: clauses vs close
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Homophone desk: clauses vs close
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: clauses and close carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kloz\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23584, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clauses is recorded at frequency rank #12,742, classified as anoun, pronounced \kloz\. close is at rank #10,842, tagged as anadj, 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 23584, this pair ranks #351,637 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of clauses vs close
Shared letters: cels. Private to "clauses": au. Private to "close": o.
"clauses" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "close" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clauses" and "close" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "clauses" or "close"?
Useful next steps
"clauses" and "close" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "clauses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "close" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #351,637 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clauses" and "close" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causses vs clauses". 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 #351,637 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.