Which to use
“skate” and “stade” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,611
- “skate” frequency rank
- #41,387
- “stade” frequency rank
- 51998
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | skate | stade |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A runner or blade, usually of steel, with a frame shaped to fit the sole of a shoe, made to be fastened under the foot, and used for gliding on ice. | Synonym of stadion (“former Greek unit of distance”). |
Where the eye mixes skate and stade
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. skate and stade follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: skate vs stade
A purely visual mix-up. skate (/skeɪt/) and stade (/steɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51998, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
skate is recorded at frequency rank #10,611, classified as anoun, pronounced /skeɪt/. stade is at rank #41,387, tagged as anoun, pronounced /steɪd/.
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 51998, this pair ranks #160,704 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of skate vs stade
Shared letters: aest. Private to "skate": k. Private to "stade": d.
"skate" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "stade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "skate" for "stade" ever safe?
Which is more common, "skate" or "stade"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "skate" and "stade" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "skate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #160,704 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "skate" and "stade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stade vs staph". 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 #160,704 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.