Which to use
“staffed” is an adjective and “stared” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,437
- “staffed” frequency rank
- #13,065
- “stared” frequency rank
- 31502
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | staffed | stared |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Occupied by staff, having members of staff. | simple past and past participle of stare |
Letter map: staffed vs stared
Shared letters muted; letters that set staffed and stared apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Role in the sentence - staffed and stared
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: staffed is anadjective and staredaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
staffed is recorded at frequency rank #18,437, classified as anadj. stared is at rank #13,065, tagged as averb, pronounced /stɛɹd/.
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 31502, this pair ranks #345,563 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of staffed vs stared
Shared letters: adest. Private to "staffed": f. Private to "stared": r.
"staffed" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "stared" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "staffed" for "stared" ever safe?
Which is more common, "staffed" or "stared"?
What to do next
Pair "staffed" vs "stared" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "staffed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stared" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #345,563 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "staffed" and "stared" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "staffed vs stapled". 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 #345,563 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.