ciclonevscloneTell them apart

Which to use

“ciclone” and “clone” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,311
“ciclone” frequency rank
#13,243
“clone” frequency rank
22554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ciclone clone
Definition centro de baixa pressão atmosférica onde o ar quente se eleva e favorece a formação de nuvens e a precipitação de chuvas reprodução fiel e idêntica de algo ou alguém real ou virtual

Where the eye mixes ciclone and clone

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
ciclone
5 ch
clone

Why the eye confuses ciclone with clone

A purely visual mix-up. ciclone (/si.ˈklɔ.nɨ/) and clone (/ˈklɔ.nɨ/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “clone” sits inside “ciclone”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ciclone is recorded at frequency rank #9,311, classified as anoun, pronounced /si.ˈklɔ.nɨ/. clone is at rank #13,243, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈklɔ.nɨ/.

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 22554, this pair ranks #47,479 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ciclone vs clone

Shared letters: celno. Private to "ciclone": i. Private to "clone": -.

"ciclone" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "clone" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ciclonecciclone · ccilone · cicclone · cicllone · ciclnoe · cicloen · ciclonne · cicolne
  • clonecclone · cllone · clnoe · cloen · clonne · colne · lcone

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ciclone" for "clone" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/si.ˈklɔ.nɨ/ versus /ˈklɔ.nɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ciclone" vs "clone" - which ranks higher?
"ciclone" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,311 in our Portuguese list, against #13,243 for "clone". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "ciclone" and "clone" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ciclone" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,479 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ciclone" and "clone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clonar vs clone". 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 #47,479 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list