Which to use
“staph” and “stats” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,070
- “staph” frequency rank
- #4,124
- “stats” frequency rank
- 53194
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | staph | stats |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Staphylococcus bacteria and the infection it causes. | Clipping of statistics (the subject). |
Where the eye mixes staph and stats
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses staph with stats
A purely visual mix-up. staph (/stæf/) and stats (/stæts/) 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 53194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
staph is recorded at frequency rank #49,070, classified as anoun, pronounced /stæf/. stats is at rank #4,124, tagged as anoun, pronounced /stæts/.
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 53194, this pair ranks #151,011 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of staph vs stats
Shared letters: ast. Private to "staph": hp. Private to "stats": -.
"staph" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "stats" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "staph" for "stats" ever safe?
Frequency check: "staph" vs "stats" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "staph" and "stats" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "staph" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #151,011 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "staph" and "stats" 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 #151,011 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.