Which to use
“onstage” is an adjective and “outage” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,670
- “onstage” frequency rank
- #20,727
- “outage” frequency rank
- 36397
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | onstage | outage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | On the part of a stage that is visible to the audience. | A temporary suspension of operation, especially of electrical power supply. |
Letter map: onstage vs outage
Shared letters muted; letters that set onstage and outage apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. onstage runs 7 letters (VCCCVCV) against outage's 6 (VVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for onstage / outage
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: onstage is anadjective and outageanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
onstage is recorded at frequency rank #15,670, classified as anadj. outage is at rank #20,727, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaʊ.tɪd͡ʒ/.
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 36397, this pair ranks #303,558 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of onstage vs outage
Shared letters: aegot. Private to "onstage": ns. Private to "outage": u.
"onstage" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV · "outage" · 6 letters · shape VVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "onstage" for "outage" ever safe?
Frequency check: "onstage" vs "outage" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "onstage" and "outage". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "onstage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "outage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #303,558 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "onstage" and "outage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "offstage vs onstage". 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 #303,558 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.