Which to use
“close” is an adjective and “clous” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,842
- “close” frequency rank
- #12,129
- “clous” frequency rank
- 22971
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | close | clous |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de clos. | Zone protégée par des clous dans un passage clouté. |
Where the eye mixes close and clous
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: close vs clous
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: close is \kloz\ while clous is \klu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
close is recorded at frequency rank #10,842, classified as anadj, pronounced \kloz\. clous is at rank #12,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klu\.
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 22971, this pair ranks #355,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of close vs clous
Shared letters: clos. Private to "close": e. Private to "clous": u.
"close" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "clous" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "close" and "clous" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "close" or "clous"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "close" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #355,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "close" and "clous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casus vs clous". 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 #355,093 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.