stadevsStaubWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#15,485
“stade” frequency rank
#5,766
“Staub” frequency rank
21251
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stade Staub
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs stad fein verteilte, kleine feste Partikel, die in der Luft schweben oder sich ablagern

Where the eye mixes stade and Staub

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

5 ch
stade
5 ch
Staub

Why the eye confuses stade with Staub

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stade is [ˈʃtaːdə] while Staub is [ʃtaʊ̯p]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stade is recorded at frequency rank #15,485, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃtaːdə]. Staub is at rank #5,766, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃtaʊ̯p].

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 21251, this pair ranks #1,888,506 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of stade vs Staub

Shared letters: ast. Private to "stade": de. Private to "Staub": bu.

"stade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Staub" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stadesatde · sstade · stadde · staed · stdae · sttade · tsade
  • Staubsatub · sstaub · stabu · staubb · sttaub · stuab · tsaub

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "stade" and "Staub" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stade" is an adjective and "Staub" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "stade" or "Staub"?
"Staub" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,766 in our German list, against #15,485 for "stade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Staub" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,888,506 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stade" and "Staub" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sake vs stade". 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 #1,888,506 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