StartevsstateWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#16,555
“Starte” frequency rank
#7,114
“state” frequency rank
23669
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Starte state
Definition selten: Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Start auf den Staat bezogen: staatlich

Where the eye mixes Starte and state

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Starte
5 ch
state

Visual trap between Starte and state

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Starte is [ˈʃtaʁtə] while state is [steit]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23669, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Starte is recorded at frequency rank #16,555, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtaʁtə]. state is at rank #7,114, tagged as anadj, pronounced [steit].

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 23669, this pair ranks #1,858,204 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Starte vs state

Shared letters: aest. Private to "Starte": r. Private to "state": -.

"Starte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "state" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Startesatrte · sstarte · staret · statre · strate · sttarte · tsarte
  • statesstate · staet · statte · sttae · sttate · tsate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Starte" for "state" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Starte" is a noun and "state" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Starte" or "state"?
"state" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,114 in our German list, against #16,555 for "Starte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Starte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "state" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,858,204 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Starte" and "state" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stärkte vs Starte". 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 #1,858,204 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