Which to use
“staple” is a noun and “stapled” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,611
- “staple” frequency rank
- #47,927
- “stapled” frequency rank
- 59538
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | staple | stapled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A town containing merchants who have exclusive right, under royal authority, to purchase or produce certain goods for export; also, the body of such merchants seen as a group. | Fastened with staples. |
Letter map: staple vs stapled
Shared letters muted; letters that set staple and stapled apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Grammar separator: staple vs stapled
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: staple is anoun and stapledanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “staple” sits inside “stapled”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59538, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
staple is recorded at frequency rank #11,611, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsteɪ.pəl/. stapled is at rank #47,927, tagged as anadj.
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 59538, this pair ranks #105,550 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of staple vs stapled
Shared letters: aelpst. Private to "staple": -. Private to "stapled": d.
"staple" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "stapled" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "staple" and "stapled" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "staple" or "stapled" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "staple" and "stapled".
- Full dictionary entry for "staple" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stapled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #105,550 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "staple" and "stapled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stapled vs starlet". 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 #105,550 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.