Which to use
“staffed” is an adjective and “stayed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,437
- “staffed” frequency rank
- #2,864
- “stayed” frequency rank
- 21301
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | staffed | stayed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Occupied by staff, having members of staff. | simple past and past participle of stay |
Letter map: staffed vs stayed
Shared letters muted; letters that set staffed and stayed apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Grammar separator: staffed vs stayed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: staffed is anadjective and stayedaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
staffed is recorded at frequency rank #18,437, classified as anadj. stayed is at rank #2,864, tagged as averb, 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 21301, this pair ranks #424,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of staffed vs stayed
Shared letters: adest. Private to "staffed": f. Private to "stayed": y.
"staffed" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "stayed" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "staffed" for "stayed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "staffed" vs "stayed" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "staffed" vs "stayed" 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 "stayed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #424,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "staffed" and "stayed" 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 #424,870 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.