clearance vs release

clearance

noun
  • The act of leaving the area of a stoppage. 

  • The first disposal in a chain that leaves the area of a stoppage, or a disposal that leaves the area of a stoppage itself. 

  • The act of clearing or something (such as a space) cleared. 

  • A permission for a vehicle to proceed, or for a person to travel. 

  • A permission to have access to sensitive or secret documents or other information. 

  • The act of kicking a ball away from the goal one is defending. 

  • The act of potting all the remaining balls on a table at one visit. 

  • Clear or net profit. 

  • The settlement of transactions involving securities or means of payment such as checks by means of a clearing house. 

  • A permission to use something, usually intellectual property, that is legally, but not otherwise, protected. 

  • The height or width of a tunnel, bridge or other passage, or the distance between a vehicle and the walls or roof of such passage; a gap, headroom. 

  • The distance between two moving objects, especially between parts of a machine 

  • A sale of merchandise, especially at significantly reduced prices, usually in order to make room for new merchandise or updated versions of the same merchandise. 

  • The removal of harmful substances from the blood; renal clearance. 

  • Removal of pieces from a rank, file or diagonal so that a bishop, rook or queen is free to move along it. 

release

noun
  • The act or manner of ending a sound. 

  • In the block system, a printed card conveying information and instructions to be used at intermediate sidings without telegraphic stations. 

  • The giving up of a claim, especially a debt. 

  • Anything recently released or made available (as for sale). 

  • A catch on a motor-starting rheostat, which automatically releases the rheostat arm and so stops the motor in case of a break in the field circuit. 

  • The catch on an electromagnetic circuit breaker for a motor, triggered in the event of an overload. 

  • The lever or button on a camera that opens the shutter to allow a photograph to be taken 

  • Orgasm. 

  • A kind of bridge used in jazz music. 

  • The distribution of an initial or new and upgraded version of a computer software product; the distribution can be either public or private. 

  • The process by which a chemical substance is set free. 

  • The event of setting (someone or something) free (e.g. hostages, slaves, prisoners, caged animals, hooked or stuck mechanisms). 

  • That which is released, untied or let go. 

  • Liberation from pain or suffering. 

verb
  • To set free a chemical substance. 

  • To let go (of); to cease to hold or contain. 

  • To make available to the public. 

  • To loosen; to relax; to remove the obligation of. 

  • To set up; to provide with a goal-scoring opportunity 

  • To free or liberate; to set free. 

  • (of a call) To hang up. 

  • To let go, as a legal claim; to discharge or relinquish a right to, as lands or tenements, by conveying to another who has some right or estate in possession, as when the person in remainder releases his right to the tenant in possession; to quit. 

  • to come out; be out. 

  • To discharge. 

  • To lease again; to grant a new lease of; to let back. 

How often have the words clearance and release occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )