stillvsstyleWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: still is a adjective, style is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“still” is an adjective and “style” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,993
“still” frequency rank
#6,600
“style” frequency rank
9593
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature still style
Definition im Zustand der Bewegungslosigkeit, der Unbewegtheit und der Ruhe 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs stylen

Where the eye mixes still and style

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

5 ch
still
5 ch
style

Look-alike desk: still vs style

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: still is [ʃtɪl] while style is [ˈstaɪ̯lə]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

still is recorded at frequency rank #2,993, classified as anadj, pronounced [ʃtɪl]. style is at rank #6,600, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈstaɪ̯lə].

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 9593, this pair ranks #1,979,234 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of still vs style

Shared letters: lst. Private to "still": i. Private to "style": ey.

"still" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "style" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stillsitll · sstill · stlil · sttill · tsill
  • stylesstyle · stlye · sttyle · styel · stylle · styyle · sytle · tsyle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "still" for "style" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "still" is an adjective and "style" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "still" or "style" show up more?
"still" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,993 in our German list, against #6,600 for "style". 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 "still" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "style" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,979,234 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "still" and "style" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Stilen vs style". 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 #1,979,234 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