clorovsclownWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,802
“cloro” frequency rank
#41,399
“clown” frequency rank
60201
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cloro clown
Definition elemento químico de símbolo Cl, possui o número atômico 17 e massa atômica relativa 35,453; é encontrado na natureza somente em compostos com outros elementos, como o cloreto de sódio ou o cloreto de potássio; é um gás, na temperatura ambiente, extremamente tóxico; utilizado como germicida padrão para o tratamento de água, na fabricação de papéis, derivados de petróleo, medicamentos, tintas, solvente e plásticos palhaço

Where the eye mixes cloro and clown

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cloro (CCVCV) and clown (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
cloro
5 ch
clown

Visual trap between cloro and clown

A purely visual mix-up. cloro (/ˈkłɔru/) and clown (/klun/) 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 60201, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cloro is recorded at frequency rank #18,802, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkłɔru/. clown is at rank #41,399, 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 60201, this pair ranks #7,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cloro vs clown

Shared letters: clo. Private to "cloro": r. Private to "clown": nw.

"cloro" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "clown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cloro ← ccloro · clloro · clorro · clroo · lcoro
  • clown ← cclown · cllown · clonw · clownn · clowwn · clwon · colwn · lcown

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cloro" for "clown" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkłɔru/ versus /klun/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cloro" or "clown" show up more?
"cloro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,802 in our Portuguese list, against #41,399 for "clown". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cloro" 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 #7,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cloro" and "clown" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clown vs coin". 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 #7,777 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