Which to use
“spate” and “stade” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,701
- “spate” frequency rank
- #41,387
- “stade” frequency rank
- 79088
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spate | stade |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A (sudden) flood or inundation of water; specifically, a flood in or overflow of a river or other watercourse due to heavy rain or melting snow; (uncountable, archaic) flooding, inundation. | Synonym of stadion (“former Greek unit of distance”). |
Where the eye mixes spate and stade
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. spate 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: spate vs stade
A purely visual mix-up. spate (/speɪt/) 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 79088, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spate is recorded at frequency rank #37,701, classified as anoun, pronounced /speɪt/. 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 79088, this pair ranks #22,934 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of spate vs stade
Shared letters: aest. Private to "spate": p. Private to "stade": d.
"spate" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "stade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "spate" for "stade" ever safe?
Which is more common, "spate" or "stade"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "spate" and "stade" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "spate" 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 #22,934 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spate" 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 #22,934 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.