Which to use
“starch” and “stares” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,706
- “starch” frequency rank
- #19,214
- “stares” frequency rank
- 38920
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | starch | stares |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A widely diffused vegetable substance, found in seeds, bulbs and tubers, as extracted (e.g. from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) in the form of a white, glistening, granular or powdery substance, without taste or smell, and giving a very peculiar creaking sound when rubbed between the fingers. It is used as a food, in the production of commercial grape sugar, for stiffening linen in laundries, in making paste, etc. | plural of stare |
Where the eye mixes starch and stares
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. starch (CCVCCC) and stares (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between starch and stares
A purely visual mix-up. starch (/stɑɹt͡ʃ/) and stares (/ˈstɛəz/) 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 38920, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
starch is recorded at frequency rank #19,706, classified as anoun, pronounced /stɑɹt͡ʃ/. stares is at rank #19,214, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈstɛəz/.
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 38920, this pair ranks #281,486 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of starch vs stares
Shared letters: arst. Private to "starch": ch. Private to "stares": e.
"starch" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "stares" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "starch" and "stares" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "starch" or "stares"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "starch" and "stares" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "starch" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stares" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #281,486 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "starch" and "stares" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "starch vs starchy". 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 #281,486 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.