# stale vs stayed

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### stale
*adjective · IPA /steɪl/ · frequency rank #16,589*
Clear, free of dregs and lees; old and strong.

### stayed
*verb · IPA /steɪd/ · frequency rank #2,864*
simple past and past participle of stay

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stale-vs-stayed