Which to use
“starved” is an adjective and “stayed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,706
- “starved” frequency rank
- #2,864
- “stayed” frequency rank
- 18570
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | starved | stayed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Approaching starvation, emaciated and malnourished. | simple past and past participle of stay |
Letter map: starved vs stayed
Shared letters muted; letters that set starved and stayed apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Role in the sentence - starved and stayed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: starved is anadjective and stayedaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18570, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
starved is recorded at frequency rank #15,706, classified as anadj. stayed is at rank #2,864, tagged as averb, pronounced /steɪd/.
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 18570, this pair ranks #444,012 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of starved vs stayed
Shared letters: adest. Private to "starved": rv. Private to "stayed": y.
"starved" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "stayed" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "starved" for "stayed" ever safe?
Which is more common, "starved" or "stayed"?
After this comparison
Pair "starved" vs "stayed" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "starved" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stayed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #444,012 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "starved" and "stayed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stapled vs starved". 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 #444,012 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.