clairvsclaroWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,787
“clair” frequency rank
#385
“claro” frequency rank
28172
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clair claro
Definition claro que clareia, ilumina

Where the eye mixes clair and claro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
clair
5 ch
claro

Visual trap between clair and claro

A purely visual mix-up. clair (\klɛʁ\) and claro (/ˈkla.ɾu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28172, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clair is recorded at frequency rank #27,787, classified as anadj, pronounced \klɛʁ\. claro is at rank #385, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkla.ɾu/.

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 28172, this pair ranks #40,676 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clair vs claro

Shared letters: aclr. Private to "clair": i. Private to "claro": o.

"clair" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "claro" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • claircalir · cclair · clairr · clari · cliar · cllair · lcair
  • clarocalro · cclaro · claor · clarro · cllaro · clrao · lcaro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clair" and "claro" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\klɛʁ\ versus /ˈkla.ɾu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "clair" vs "claro" - which ranks higher?
"claro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #385 in our Portuguese list, against #27,787 for "clair". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "clair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "claro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,676 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clair" and "claro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clair vs coagir". 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 #40,676 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