clientsvsclimatsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,225
“clients” frequency rank
#20,960
“climats” frequency rank
22185
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clients climats
Definition Pluriel de client. Pluriel de climat.

Where the eye mixes clients and climats

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. clients (CCVVCCC) and climats (CCVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
clients
7 ch
climats

Look-alike desk: clients vs climats

A purely visual mix-up. clients (\kli.jɑ̃\) and climats (\kli.ma\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22185, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clients is recorded at frequency rank #1,225, classified as anoun, pronounced \kli.jɑ̃\. climats is at rank #20,960, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kli.ma\.

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 22185, this pair ranks #359,406 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of clients vs climats

Shared letters: cilst. Private to "clients": en. Private to "climats": am.

"clients" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCC  ·  "climats" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clients ← cclients · cilents · cleints · cliennts · clienst · clientss · clientts · clietns
  • climats ← cclimats · cilmats · cliamts · climast · climatss · climatts · climmats · climtas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clients" for "climats" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kli.jɑ̃\ versus \kli.ma\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "clients" vs "climats" - which ranks higher?
"clients" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,225 in our French list, against #20,960 for "climats". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "clients" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "climats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #359,406 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clients" and "climats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "climatisé vs climats". 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 #359,406 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