Which to use
“cloud” and “clous” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,165
- “cloud” frequency rank
- #12,129
- “clous” frequency rank
- 19294
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cloud | clous |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cloud computing ; informatique en nuage. | Zone protégée par des clous dans un passage clouté. |
Where the eye mixes cloud and clous
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cloud with clous
A purely visual mix-up. cloud (\klawd\) and clous (\klu\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - d in “cloud” becomes s in “clous”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cloud is recorded at frequency rank #7,165, classified as anoun, pronounced \klawd\. 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 19294, this pair ranks #373,965 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cloud vs clous
Shared letters: clou. Private to "cloud": d. Private to "clous": s.
"cloud" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "clous" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cloud" and "clous" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cloud" or "clous"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cloud" 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 #373,965 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cloud" 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 #373,965 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.