satinvsstationWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“satin” and “station” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,476
“satin” frequency rank
#1,061
“station” frequency rank
18537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature satin station
Definition A cloth woven from silk, nylon or polyester with a glossy surface and a dull back. (The same weaving technique applied to cotton produces cloth termed sateen). A stopping place.

Where the eye mixes satin and station

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

5 ch
satin
7 ch
station

Look-alike desk: satin vs station

A purely visual mix-up. satin (/ˈsæt.ɪn/) and station (/ˈsteɪʃən/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

satin is recorded at frequency rank #17,476, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsæt.ɪn/. station is at rank #1,061, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsteɪʃən/.

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 18537, this pair ranks #444,222 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of satin vs station

Shared letters: ainst. Private to "satin": -. Private to "station": o.

"satin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "station" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • satinastin · satinn · satni · sattin · ssatin
  • stationsattion · sstation · staiton · stasion · statino · stationn · statoin · stattion

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "satin" for "station" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsæt.ɪn/ versus /ˈsteɪʃən/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "satin" or "station" show up more?
"station" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,061 in our English list, against #17,476 for "satin". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "satin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "station" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #444,222 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "satin" and "station" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "satin vs savin". 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 #444,222 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list