Which to use
“close” is an adjective and “clown” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,842
- “close” frequency rank
- #8,974
- “clown” frequency rank
- 19816
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | close | clown |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de clos. | Acteur qui, dans les cirques, fait des exercices d’équilibre et de souplesse tout en jouant un rôle bouffon. Il porte habituellement un accoutrement grotesque. |
Where the eye mixes close and clown
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses close with clown
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: close is \kloz\ while clown is \klun\. 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 19816, 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\. clown is at rank #8,974, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klun\.
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 19816, this pair ranks #371,395 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of close vs clown
Shared letters: clo. Private to "close": es. Private to "clown": nw.
"close" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "clown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "close" for "clown" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "close" or "clown" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "close" and "clown" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "close" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clown" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #371,395 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "close" and "clown" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs close". 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 #371,395 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.