stablevsstapledWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: stable is a noun, stapled is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“stable” is a noun and “stapled” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,139
“stable” frequency rank
#47,927
“stapled” frequency rank
51066
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stable stapled
Definition A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses. Fastened with staples.

Letter map: stable vs stapled

Shared letters muted; letters that set stable and stapled apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
stable
7 ch
stapled

Role in the sentence - stable and stapled

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: stable is anoun and stapledanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51066, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stable is recorded at frequency rank #3,139, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsteɪ.bəl/. stapled is at rank #47,927, tagged as anadj.

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 51066, this pair ranks #168,700 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stable vs stapled

Shared letters: aelst. Private to "stable": b. Private to "stapled": dp.

"stable" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "stapled" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stablesatble · sstable · stabble · stabel · stablle · stalbe · stbale · stible
  • stapledsatpled · sstapled · stalped · stapeld · staplde · stapledd · staplled · stappled

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "stable" and "stapled" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stable" is a noun and "stapled" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "stable" vs "stapled" - which ranks higher?
"stable" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,139 in our English list, against #47,927 for "stapled". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "stable" vs "stapled" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stapled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #168,700 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stable" and "stapled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stapled vs starlet". 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 #168,700 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