clownvscornWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,974
“clown” frequency rank
#16,103
“corn” frequency rank
25077
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clown corn
Definition 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. Corne.

Letter map: clown vs corn

Shared letters muted; letters that set clown and corn apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
clown
4 ch
corn

Pair insight - clown / corn

clown and corn are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clown is recorded at frequency rank #8,974, classified as anoun, pronounced \klun\. corn is at rank #16,103, tagged as anoun.

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 25077, this pair ranks #342,931 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of clown vs corn

Shared letters: cno. Private to "clown": lw. Private to "corn": r.

"clown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "corn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clowncclown · cllown · clonw · clownn · clowwn · clwon · colwn · lcown
  • cornccorn · conr · cornn · corrn · cron · ocrn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clown" and "corn" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "clown" or "corn"?
"clown" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,974 in our French list, against #16,103 for "corn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "clown" and "corn".

  • Full dictionary entry for "clown" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #342,931 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clown" and "corn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs corn". 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 #342,931 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