English homophones
stair/stare
"stair" is a noun; "stare" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "stair" arrives as a noun, while "stare" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "sta" then splits - "stair" (5 letters) vs "stare" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across stair, stare: arst. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
stair
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVVC
Inventory airst · private i
stare
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVCV
Inventory aerst · private e
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "stair" when you mean: A single step in a staircase.
- Write "stare" when you mean: To look fixedly (at something).
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (stair, stare). Here's where to go from here.
- "stare" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #8,211 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: spa · spar. Nearby cluster
- Grammar often disambiguates this cluster, match the meaning to the part of speech before picking a spelling. Pick by meaning
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.