Which to use
“stagger” is a noun and “staggered” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,347
- “stagger” frequency rank
- #22,226
- “staggered” frequency rank
- 58573
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stagger | staggered |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion. | simple past and past participle of stagger |
Letter map: stagger vs staggered
Shared letters muted; letters that set stagger and staggered apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Part-of-speech tell for stagger / staggered
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: stagger is anoun and staggeredaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “stagger” sits inside “staggered”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58573, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stagger is recorded at frequency rank #36,347, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈstæɡə/. staggered is at rank #22,226, tagged as averb.
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 58573, this pair ranks #111,679 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of stagger vs staggered
Shared letters: aegrst. Private to "stagger": -. Private to "staggered": d.
"stagger" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "staggered" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "stagger" and "staggered" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "stagger" or "staggered"?
What to do next
Pair "stagger" vs "staggered" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "stagger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "staggered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #111,679 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stagger" and "staggered" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seager vs stagger". 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 #111,679 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.