slavevsstadeTell them apart

Quick tell: slave is a noun, stade is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“slave” is a noun and “stade” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,060
“slave” frequency rank
#15,485
“stade” frequency rank
42545
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature slave stade
Definition Mensch, der Eigentum eines anderen Menschen ist; Unfreier: Sklave, Sklavin Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs stad

Where the eye mixes slave and stade

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
slave
5 ch
stade

Why the eye confuses slave with stade

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: slave is [sleɪv] while stade is [ˈʃtaːdə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42545, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

slave is recorded at frequency rank #27,060, classified as anoun, pronounced [sleɪv]. stade is at rank #15,485, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃtaːdə].

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 42545, this pair ranks #1,446,068 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of slave vs stade

Shared letters: aes. Private to "slave": lv. Private to "stade": dt.

"slave" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "stade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • slavelsave · slaev · slavve · sllave · slvae · sslave
  • stadesatde · sstade · stadde · staed · stdae · sttade · tsade

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "slave" for "stade" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "slave" is a noun and "stade" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "slave" vs "stade" - which ranks higher?
"stade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,485 in our German list, against #27,060 for "slave". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "slave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,446,068 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "slave" and "stade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sake vs slave". 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 #1,446,068 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list