SlatesvsstakesConfusable pair

Quick tell: Slates is a name, stakes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Slates” is a name and “stakes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,781
“Slates” frequency rank
#6,962
“stakes” frequency rank
53743
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Slates stakes
Definition A surname. plural of stake

Letter map: Slates vs stakes

Shared letters muted; letters that set Slates and stakes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
Slates
6 ch
stakes

Part-of-speech tell for Slates / stakes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Slates is aname and stakesanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53743, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Slates is recorded at frequency rank #46,781, classified as aname. stakes is at rank #6,962, tagged as anoun, pronounced /steɪks/.

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 53743, this pair ranks #146,549 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Slates vs stakes

Shared letters: aest. Private to "Slates": l. Private to "stakes": k.

"Slates" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "stakes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Slateslsates · saltes · slaets · slatess · slatse · slattes · sllates · sltaes
  • stakessatkes · sstakes · staeks · stakess · stakkes · stakse · stkaes · sttakes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Slates" and "stakes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Slates" is a name and "stakes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Slates" or "stakes" show up more?
"stakes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,962 in our English list, against #46,781 for "Slates". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "Slates" vs "stakes" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Slates" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stakes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #146,549 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Slates" and "stakes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sate vs Slates". 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 #146,549 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