stadevsstaphWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“stade” and “staph” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,387
“stade” frequency rank
#49,070
“staph” frequency rank
90457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stade staph
Definition Synonym of stadion (“former Greek unit of distance”). Staphylococcus bacteria and the infection it causes.

Where the eye mixes stade and staph

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. stade (CCVCV) and staph (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
stade
5 ch
staph

Visual trap between stade and staph

A purely visual mix-up. stade (/steɪd/) and staph (/stæf/) 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 90457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stade is recorded at frequency rank #41,387, classified as anoun, pronounced /steɪd/. staph is at rank #49,070, tagged as anoun, pronounced /stæf/.

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 90457, this pair ranks #4,178 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of stade vs staph

Shared letters: ast. Private to "stade": de. Private to "staph": hp.

"stade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "staph" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stade ← satde · sstade · stadde · stdae · sttade · tsade
  • staph ← satph · sstaph · stahp · staphh · stapph · stpah · sttaph · tsaph

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "stade" and "staph" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/steɪd/ versus /stæf/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "stade" vs "staph" - which ranks higher?
"stade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,387 in our English list, against #49,070 for "staph". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "stade" and "staph" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "staph" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,178 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stade" and "staph" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "staid 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 #4,178 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