Which to use
“scarce” is an adjective and “starch” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,856
- “scarce” frequency rank
- #19,706
- “starch” frequency rank
- 32562
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | scarce | starch |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand. | A widely diffused vegetable substance, found in seeds, bulbs and tubers, as extracted (e.g. from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) in the form of a white, glistening, granular or powdery substance, without taste or smell, and giving a very peculiar creaking sound when rubbed between the fingers. It is used as a food, in the production of commercial grape sugar, for stiffening linen in laundries, in making paste, etc. |
Where the eye mixes scarce and starch
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. scarce (CCVCCV) and starch (CCVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses scarce with starch
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: scarce is /ˈskɛəs/ while starch is /stɑɹt͡ʃ/. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
scarce is recorded at frequency rank #12,856, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈskɛəs/. starch is at rank #19,706, tagged as anoun, pronounced /stɑɹt͡ʃ/.
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 32562, this pair ranks #336,730 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of scarce vs starch
Shared letters: acrs. Private to "scarce": e. Private to "starch": ht.
"scarce" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "starch" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "scarce" and "starch" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "scarce" or "starch"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "scarce" and "starch" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "scarce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "starch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #336,730 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "scarce" and "starch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "starch vs starchy". 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 #336,730 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.